Thailand accelerates decentralized digital identity with NDID

Thailand’s blockchain roadmap should shift as NDID grows.

That’s the message from Andre Barros, strategy and project director at Limix. Speaking to the Bangkok Post, Barros believes the country’s blockchain security roadmap is coming into focus.

“In the next phase, we think Thailand should shift the focus to real-world deployment, technical interoperability, and citizen-centric experiences,” he said.

NDID is a decentralized, blockchain-based identity system backed by the Bank of Thailand and developed in partnership with both the public and private sectors. To clarify, NDID is not a digitized version of the national identity card or even a digital identity in itself.

The majority of NDID’s sixty-plus shareholders are in the financial sector and that’s where its emphasis lies, as a Biometric Update interview with CEO Boonsun Prasitsumrit made clear. To date, NDID has over nine million active users and supports cross-bank, cross-platform ID verification.

Combating fraud and safeguarding Thailand’s digital economy goes hand in hand, with more secure identity verification. Limix recently announced a strategic partnership with the Thailand International Digital Business and Finance Centre (TIDC) as they seek to address crypto wallet scams and digital identity fraud.

TIDC is an initiative that aims to drive Thailand’s ambition to become a regional digital hub. TIDC signed an MOU with DTC Group in April to create a collaborative partnership driving Web3, blockchain and AI innovation.

Limix and TIDC are co-developing a framework to address the issue from both a technological and ecosystem level. Together they plan to leverage Limix’s proprietary KYC Identity Engine and real-time fraud detection, with a solution to be piloted through partnerships with crypto platforms and fintech providers in 2025.

National rollout is expected in the next five years and TIDC say the technology may expand into other use cases – such as e-government, digital citizen services, cross-border digital ID frameworks and smart city integrations – in the long term.

Thailand is rolling out self-sovereign identity (SSI) systems and digital wallets will allow users to manage and reuse their KYC status. Barros believes the adoption of ZKP (zero-knowledge proof) technology is expected to ramp up in sectors like online lending, digital assets and ecommerce in the next year.

Article Topics

decentralized ID  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  Limix  |  National Digital ID (NDID)  |  Thailand