UAE Pass digital vault gets blockchain infrastructure upgrade

The blockchain infrastructure underpinning document storage and verification in UAE Pass, the United Arab Emirates’ national digital identity platform, is being upgraded to a faster and more scalable architecture.

The UAE’s Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) has selected Avalanche to power the blockchain layer beneath the app’s Digital Vault, which lets users request, store and share verified records such as academic certificates, business licenses and permits.

According to a company blog, the system has been upgraded to an Avalanche Layer 1 blockchain which is intended to improve the trust, scalability and performance of the infrastructure supporting digital identity and verifiable documents. The deployment highlights the role of institutional trust alongside cryptography in making verifiable digital documents usable at scale: credentials are only useful when receiving organizations trust their issuer and verification infrastructure.

The blog states that apart from the UAE government, the California DMV also uses an Avalanche L1 system where it has already digitized more than 42 million vehicle titles.

Avalanche says the dedicated L1 allows TDRA to retain control over network membership, permissioning and configuration, giving the government greater control over the infrastructure supporting the Digital Vault.

There has been growing adoption of the UAE Pass digital ID platform which is now used by more than 12.5 million people to complete authentication, sign documents and access a wide range of government and private-sector services. More than 15,000 services provided by over 350 entities can be accessed using the platform.

The surge in digital adoption is also raising the need for tighter security and trust frameworks in the country to better protect digital transactions.

Recently, UAE Pass was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a global model for integrated digital government infrastructure, praised for its trust-centric, human-centered approach and ability to avoid duplication across agencies.

Avalanche says the UAE Pass Digital Vault upgrade comes as governments increasingly consider dedicated blockchain infrastructure for digital services, which can avoid competition with unrelated applications, deliver more predictable performance and give public authorities greater control over participation and configuration.

Article Topics

Avalanche  |  blockchain  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital ID infrastructure  |  identity infrastructure  |  UAE  |  UAE Pass