Bhutan has integrated its National Digital Identity platform with the Ethereum blockchain, making the Himalayan kingdom the first country to anchor a live, population-scale identity system on a public network.
The transition enables the NDI platform to issue verifiable credentials and link decentralized identifiers to Ethereum’s validator network. Citizens will be able to cryptographically prove attributes such as age, residency, or citizenship without relying on centralized databases. The system’s full migration is scheduled for completion by early 2026.
“Decentralized digital identity empowers people by giving them more secure control over their data and their online lives,” Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, said in a statement shared with Decrypt.
Bhutan’s “embrace of an open architecture on Ethereum” resonates with how the chain sees its purpose of driving “meaningful, positive change through open-source technology,” Buterin added.
Launched in 2023, the system initially used W3C identity standards and operated in partnership with Input Output Global, the developer of Cardano, as part of early testing in self-sovereign identity. Bhutan’s crown prince, Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, later became Bhutan’s first digital citizen, symbolizing the program’s national rollout.
Decrypt reached out for further comment to Bhutan’s sovereign wealth arm, Druk Holding & Investments, the Ethereum Foundation, and IOG, formerly known as IOHK, but did not immediately receive a response.
A double-edged sword?
The move “shows that governments are finally waking up to the idea that identity doesn’t have to be centralized to be trusted,” Kirill Avery, founder and CEO of Alien, a decentralized network for real humans and verifiable AI agents, told Decrypt.
Bhutan has become one of the few governments to apply blockchain technologies at a national scale. Through DHI, the country has developed projects in Bitcoin mining, digital asset management, and decentralized identity.
But putting national IDs “directly on a public chain like Ethereum” could be “a double-edged sword,” Avery said. “Transparency is good for auditability, but not for privacy.”
Once credentials live on-chain, “they live forever, and that permanence can quickly turn into surveillance if not handled with extreme care,” he added.
There is a need for digital identity systems to “strike a far harder balance, being verifiable without being traceable,” he said.
“Bhutan’s experiment might push other governments to think beyond control and toward interoperability, but true self-sovereign identity can’t exist on infrastructure that anyone, including the state, can unilaterally monitor.”
The rise of Bhutan on the blockchain
Earlier this year, Bhutan’s planned Special Administrative Region outlined a proposal to hold Bitcoin and Ethereum as part of its strategic reserves to support its broader digital finance strategy.
Months later, Bhutan’s Tourism Council partnered with Binance Pay to integrate crypto payments across its tourism ecosystem, allowing visitors to pay for bookings, hotels, and local services using digital assets as part of the government’s push to modernize tourism infrastructure and promote Bhutan as a crypto-friendly destination.
Bhutan is the fifth-largest country holding Bitcoin, with around 6,370 BTC valued at approximately $725 million, according to data from Arkham. That places slightly above El Salvador, which holds about 6,349 BTC worth roughly $720 million at current prices.
However, the government’s Bitcoin balance has gradually declined from roughly 13,000 BTC in late 2024 to current levels. Bhutan’s Ethereum holdings are smaller by comparison at just 656 ETH, worth around $2.73 million.
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