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.
“It’s deeply inspiring to see a nation commit to empowering its citizens with self-sovereign identity,” Miyaguchi posted to X on Monday, adding that the Ethereum integration was a world-first.
“This milestone marks not only a national achievement but a global step toward a more open and secure digital future for the long term.”
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.
Ethereum is Bhutan’s third blockchain national ID solution
Bhutan previously ran its national ID system on Polygon from August 2024 and Hyperledger Indy before that. Brazil and Vietnam are among the few other countries that have partially integrated blockchain-based self-sovereign identity solutions to date.
Miyaguchi noted that Bhutan’s National Digital Identity and GovTech teams played a crucial role in the Ethereum integration, as well as other contributors in the Bhutan crypto community.
Bhutan has been stacking Bitcoin
Bhutan — a country that measures national progress by Gross National Happiness — has quietly become a leader in crypto adoption in recent years. It is currently the fifth-largest Bitcoin-holding nation-state, having amassed its holdings through mining using renewable energy at its Himalayan hydropower dams.
It currently holds 11,286 Bitcoin worth $1.31 billion, trailing only the US, China, the UK, and Ukraine, BitBo’s Bitcoin Treasuries data shows.
Bhutan may also be exploring other crypto initiatives, having met with former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao in late September — though the details of their discussions were not disclosed.