Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba says that the Covid-19 vaccination certificate in the MySejahtera app uses blockchain technology.
This is the same technology used by cryptocurrencies and NFTs to prevent duplication and forgery.
So how did a 51-year-old doctor in Terengganu manage to run an operation selling fake vaccination certificates?
READ MORE: Dr Issuing Fake Vaccine Certs Nabbed By Terengganu Police
Blockchain
A blockchain can be imagined as interconnected ledgers. An infinite copy of the ledger can exist so no one person has all the ledgers.
All of them are in sync so the data in each is consistent.
At the same time, one would need the previous ledger to decipher the current ledger ensuring the chain of information is not broken.
Because of this, forging and manipulating blockchain is practically impossible, so much so that it is being used as the backbone of cryptocurrency, NFT, and any usecase where you’d want the chain of information to be infallible.
Abuse Of Power
Dr Adham explains that the only way the fake vaccination certificates could have been issued is if it was given without the injection.
The party that administers the injection and verifies it in the system to issue the certificate is the same. There is no independent third party to check and prevent the abuse of power.
Regarding the fake vaccination certificate case in Terengganu, Dr Adham said that his ministry would leave it to the Police to investigate it further.
