From First Mover to Blueprint: Lessons from Bhutan’s Decentralized ID

As one of the first countries to implement self-sovereign identity at national scale – and the first to anchor its national digital identity system on Ethereum – Bhutan had few direct precedents to follow. Building on existing models and decentralized technologies, it had to rethink their application to national public infrastructure.

The discussion unpacks the technical, institutional and societal choices behind implementation – from Ethereum’s role and the transition from Polygon to the governance, legal and operational conditions required for success. It explores the challenges of building trust, driving adoption and ensuring inclusion, as well as the opportunities and tradeoffs for countries with different levels of digital infrastructure, institutional capacity and population scale.

Speakers: Emma Luu Van Lang, Kinzang Dorji, Tshendu Gyeltshen

Track: Rights, Freedoms, and Governance