RNS.ID provides decentralized ID protocol for Palau on Solana

U.S. citizens looking for a brief sojourn away from the churn of American politics should consider Palau, where RNS.ID offers Palau ID digital residencies to citizens of 138 countries, including the U.S., and will soon launch Legal Decentralized ID (LDID) on the Solana blockchain.

In a post on X (née Twitter), RNS.ID says “this marks the first time a sovereign nation issues legal identity on Solana.”

A digital residency application costs $248. Registrants will receive an official, physical national ID card issued by Palau, which allows holders to perform ID verification for check-in, boarding and rentals – and to extend their visas for stay in Palau up to an additional 180 days per entry, per a report from Decrypt.

RNS.ID told Biometric Update in an email it has issued 19,189 digital residencies to users since September 2023. Anonymity for the purpose of cryptocurrency transactions is also a benefit of digital residency. Among those who have already signed up are U.S. investor Tim Draper, and Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum.

Like Estonia, Palau – an archipelago of over 500 islands that belong to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the western Pacific Ocean – is a small nation looking to beef up its international heft through digital transformation and the offering of a digital residency. Digital residents do not have to physically live in Palau.

American and other foreign citizens, however, can already reside in Palau indefinitely (and vice versa) under the Compact of Free Association, which describes the United States’ commitment to provide financial assistance to the FSM. Palau residents can use their digital ID with a range of public services and private businesses in the U.S., as lawyer Parviz Malakouti-Fitzgerald demonstrates in a series of blog posts.

This post was updated at 2:58pm Eastern on August 10, 2024 to clarify the distinction between LDID and digital residency, and include updated figures from RNS.ID.

Article Topics

decentralized ID  |  digital identity  |  identity verification  |  KYC  |  national ID  |  Palau  |  Solana