7-year-old Prince becomes first digital citizen of Bhutan

Category : International Published on: February 24 2023

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Seven-year-old Prince Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, the heir apparent and eldest son of Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema, has become the country’s first digital citizen.
Prince Jigme is the mountainous country’s first citizen to receive the National Digital Identity (NDI) mobile wallet.
The NDI is Bhutan’s national digital identity system which will allow citizens to have a single digital portal where different personal information can be stored.
The system is similar to the Aadhar system currently in use in India.
The NDI system uses the “self-sovereign identity” model based on Decentralised Identity (DID) technology, which allows citizens greater control over who they share information with and to what extent.
The NDI programme was launched in October 2021 but data collection was hampered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.