The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Malaysia’s Zetrix AI Berhad group to adopt the Zetrix Layer-1 public blockchain platform as the foundational protocol for the Philippine government’s upcoming public blockchain infrastructure.
According to the press release, the agreement was signed by DICT Secretary Henry R. Aguda, Zetrix Philippines Inc. Chairman Ronald Allan M. Aquino, and My Blockchain Infrastructure Sdn. Bhd. Chairman Datuk Mohd Jimmy Wong Abdullah. The cross-border initiative will focus on establishing digital identity interoperability between Malaysia and the Philippines, alongside the automated issuance and verification of government-issued digital credentials.
Technical Scope and Regional Infrastructure
The underlying infrastructure will be co-operationalized by Zetrix Philippines, DICT, and My Blockchain Infrastructure Sdn. Bhd., a joint venture between Zetrix AI and Malaysia’s National Research & Development Agency, MIMOS Berhad. The Zetrix protocol currently powers the Malaysia Blockchain Infrastructure (MBI) and serves as an international supernode connected to China’s national Xinghuo Blockchain Infrastructure and Facility.
In a public statement, DICT Secretary Aguda noted that the deployment aims to secure government-issued credentials across varying administrative borders to decrease processing friction for citizens. Zetrix AI, formerly operating as MY E.G. Services Berhad, has provided digital government services within the Philippines for nearly a decade, serving agencies such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Interoperability with Existing Local Implementations
The Zetrix deployment introduces an additional layer to the country’s public sector web3 architecture, which has seen parallel infrastructure development over the past year. As previously investigated and reported by BitPinas, the DICT co-developed the “Digital Bayanihan Chain” (DBC) alongside local blockchain technology provider BayaniChain.
Furthermore, the DICT also unveiled “Integrity Chain“, a pilot initiative aimed to become a a decentralized ledger designed to log public works documentation and track project funds via cross-referenced satellite imagery and data feeds.
Legislative Consolidation Under the CADENA Bill
These separate infrastructure partnerships coincide with active policy movements in the legislature. The House Committee on Information and Communications Technology, led by Camarines Sur Representative Miguel Luis Villafuerte, consolidated 29 transparent governance measures into the proposed Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability (CADENA) Act.
The pending legislation seeks to mandate all national government agencies and state-run corporations to upload budget allocations, procurement records, and audit reports to a centralized, tamper-proof digital budget platform. The Senate version of the CADENA bill passed with a unanimous 17-0 vote in December 2025, while recent iterations in the House, such as House Bill No. 7450, seek to expand the mandate to include live data on government revenue generation.
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This article is published on BitPinas: DICT Signs MOU With Malaysia’s Zetrix for Government Blockchain Project
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