In a historic milestone for digital governance, Bhutan has begun migrating its National Digital Identity (NDI) platform from Polygon to the Ethereum blockchain, making it the first country to anchor a population-wide identity system on a public network.
At a launch ceremony in Thimphu attended by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum Foundation President Aya Miyaguchi, Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, and the Crown Prince, the integration was declared “fully operational,” while the migration of all citizen credentials is expected to be completed by Q1 2026.
According to Miyaguchi, the move is “not only a national achievement but a global step toward a more open and secure digital future.”
Under the new setup, nearly 800,000 Bhutanese citizens will be able to cryptographically verify credentials (such as age, residence, or citizenship) directly via Ethereum, using verifiable credentials (VCs) and digital signature capabilities.
Sensitive personal data will remain off-chain, with only cryptographic proofs stored on-chain to preserve privacy and auditability.
This migration represents Bhutan’s shift from permissioned infrastructure toward an open, decentralized architecture. The NDI was initially built on Hyperledger Indy, later moved to Polygon in 2024, before settling on Ethereum.
Bhutan’s government frames this as part of its broader “Digital Drukyul” vision, which promotes sovereignty, security, and citizen empowerment through technology.
However, experts caution that anchoring national identity to a public chain brings trade-offs. While Ethereum’s global validator network confers resilience and decentralization, the immutability of on-chain data means any missteps in design could risk traceability or surveillance.
Still, many observers see Bhutan’s bold step as a test case for how states might build citizen-centric digital infrastructure in the Web3 era. As the world watches, Bhutan aims to complete the migration early next year, and in doing so, stake its claim as a global pioneer in self-sovereign identity.