Bhutan is rebuilding the core of its digital identity framework on Ethereum.

The initiative, confirmed by Ethereum Foundation’s Aya Miyaguchi, is part of the Himalayan kingdom’s wider experiment with emerging technologies. It signals that blockchain, once confined to trading and tokens, is now being tested as public infrastructure.

According to Miyaguchi, the move will see every one of the country’s roughly 800,000 citizens hold a verifiable, blockchain-secured identity that they control directly from their devices by 2026.

This further shows how Bhutan’s identity program has evolved rapidly since 2023.

The National Digital Identity was launched initially via a ceremonial registration of His Royal Highness The Gyalsey, a symbolic gesture marking Bhutan’s entry into the digital age. That first version ran on Hyperledger, a permissioned blockchain favored for enterprise pilots.

By 2024, the government had shifted to Polygon, drawn by its lower fees and zero-knowledge proofs that allow users to confirm who they are without exposing personal data.

Yet within a year, government officials decided that migrating to Ethereum would offer the country unmatched decentralization and global security guarantees.

Jigme Tenzing, the Secretary of the GovTech Agency, reportedly said:

“Ethereum is one of the most decentralised blockchains in the world, making it virtually impervious to disruption. This transition cements both the security and stability of our digital identity.”

Why Ethereum, and why now?

Bhutan’s move reflects a global rethink of identity management amid rising identity theft.

According to the World Bank’s ID4D dataset, nearly 850 million people worldwide still lack any official form of ID, while another 3.3 billion have no digitally verifiable records. As a result, many re

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Author: Oluwapelumi Adejumo