Bhutan moves national ID system to Ethereum, onboards 800,000 people

Bhutan, a $3.02 billion economy, is reportedly migrating its self-sovereign ID system to Ethereum from Polygon.

This move enables secure storage of about 800,000 people's identities on the Ethereum blockchain.

The South Asian nation of Bhutan is migrating its self-sovereign ID system to Ethereum from Polygon, allowing its nearly 800,000 residents to verify their identities and access government services.

The integration with Ethereum has been completed, while the migration of all resident credentials is expected to finish by the first quarter of 2026, according to Ethereum Foundation President Aya Miyaguchi, who joined Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin at the launch ceremony with Bhutan’s prime minister, Tshering Tobgay, and crown prince, Jigme Namgyel Wangchuk.

Integrating a blockchain-based solution into a government’s national ID system has long been touted as a promising crypto use case, due to its immutability, transparency and privacy features, particularly when zero-knowledge proofs are implemented. - Cointelegraph report

Seeing that Bhutan had already tapped blockchain tech for its self-sovereign ID system, this news should raise questions such as “why move to Ethereum?” more than anything else.

I cannot speak for anything else, not even on, if this move is smart, considering data security and what having an ID system on-chain could mean for all blockchain-based transactions, everyone has their opinions on this, at this point.

It can be good and it can also be very bad.

So, to focus on what really matters here, the migration to Ethereum.

This is likely due to recent praise that the Ethereum blockchain has received, the institutional interest and growing community enthusiasm, it is, after all, the most credibly neutral network, so if anyone was looking for where to build a self-sovereign ID system, it should be the best option.

It would interest you to know that Bhutan is the fifth largest bitcoin holder as a country with 11,286 BTC stack, worth about $1.25 billion, according to data from Bitbo.io.

I must say, holding BTC that's valued over 41% of your country's GDP is actually quite the brag. If Bhutan was a stock, I would totally bet on it!

Posted Using INLEO