Bhutan’s transformation to a digital nation holding just over 787,000 citizens is slow. The majority of people living in Bhutan are without basic internet connection, a sign of any modern country. This year, at Identity Week Asia, we were proud to welcome Suprit Pradhan from this small and technologically underdeveloped country to deliver a presentation full of passion for Bhutan’s digital needs and new digital identity system.
Leading the development of a cutting-edge digital identity system based on the Self-Sovereign Identity, Suprit Pradham spoke to global leaders on forging Bhutan’s vision to be the next tech leader and emulating other identity ecosystems.
Physical cards are already available to citizens in Bhutan however the session raised questions of how to expand coverage of a whole population with cost-effective and scalable solutions. The mission is driven under Druk Holdings and Investment (DHI) to transform how citizens interact with online services and finally immerse this nation into modern and scalable plans for security.
This keynote presentation received the most questions around how NDI products are evolving. Citizens can currently onboard themselves to the foundational ID app to get national ID and the self-sovereign philosophy was implemented from July 2021.
With the King Of Bhutan’s endorsement enrolling in December 2022, 14 partner portals are live to onboard to any services using national ID within wallets. Many nationals do not own a phone or wallet so building a hardware and digital wallet is in the roadmap to achieve Bhutan’s future-proof plans for privacy, security and KYC, Pradhan said.
