Thailand Applies Blockchain To E-Visa System On Arrival (eVOA)

The latest cryptocurrency news show that Thailand applies blockchain to its Electronic Visa On Arrival (eVOA) system. As one of the most visited countries in the world and a major touristic destination, Thailand knows that the benefits of blockchain are numerous and need to be exploited in the right way.

This is why the new blockchain-powered eVOA system intends to speed up and protect the digital visa applicaiton process. It will soon be available for five million visitors from 20 countries.

As Thailand applies blockchain to its electronic visa system, we can see that the eVOA feature is actually a joint effort between the Australian travel company ShareRing and Gateway Services, an entity which owns the license to process eVOA for Thailand. This is what one press release claimed.

The official announcement shows that Thailand applies blockchain and will initially roll out the blockchain-enabled eVOA service with a focus on visitors from China and India. As the news show, the new feature will also streamline the process of applying for visa for Thailand as its existing Visa-On-Arrival process is done at airports or land entry points in the country. The process is paper-based and requires travellers to bring their documents as well as printed copies of their airline tickets, accommodation and photos.

The fact that Thailand applies blockchain to its visa process shows that the country is ready for digitization. Major risks fraud or mistakes from the eVOA provider will be mitigated and decreased. The blockchain news also show that Gateway Services has been working hard to improve security, speed and quality of this process.

Specifically, ShareRing provides Gateway Services with its self-sovereign identity technology OneID, which enables optical character recognition (OCR) and protects the data by encrypting all the information in a single file on blockchain.

As Thailand applies this system, ShareRing is now eyeing a further global expansion of its blockchain-based visa application platform after successfully completing all of its initial pilots.

“We see this as a blueprint for possible expansion to other countries. It’s not a process that will be rushed though, as we need to make sure we get it right here before entering other countries,” Bos noted.