The United Arab Emirates is moving the digital document records of more than 12.5 million citizens to a blockchain-based system operated using Avalanche.
The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) has selected Avalanche, a smart contract-enabled layer 1 blockchain, to upgrade the UAEPASS Digital Vault.
The vault manages the issuing, sharing and verification of documents provided by government departments and private organisations. UAEPASS is the UAE’s national digital identity platform, bringing identity and document information together while allowing other services to verify certificates that have already been digitally signed.
The upgrade will use Avalanche’s decentralised services to improve the scalability and performance of the system as the UAE’s digital identity and verifiable document services continue to grow.
John Nahas, chief business officer at Ava Labs, said reliability was essential for a platform on which millions of people depend.
“The UAE is building digital services people use every day, and Avalanche is designed for exactly that kind of environment. This project shows what technology built for business looks like, with high-performance infrastructure operating behind the scenes to help deliver secure and seamless services,” he said.
Avalanche said the UAEPASS Digital Vault would operate on a dedicated, AVAX-powered layer 1 blockchain. That would allow the system to handle UAE-related activity on its own network instead of depending on capacity provided by a public blockchain.
The company said the arrangement would offer more predictable performance because the platform would be less exposed to external conditions affecting transaction capacity elsewhere on a public network.
Under the new structure, the TDRA will continue to oversee the UAEPASS Digital Vault ecosystem. It will establish the infrastructure’s operating rules and determine who can access and manage it.
“A government cannot outsource accountability for a system 12.5 million people depend on,” Avalanche said.
Saeed Belhoul, director of Dgov Operations at the TDRA, said the change was intended to ensure the system could meet its long-term obligations.
“Upgrading the Digital Vault ensures the platform is built on infrastructure that can carry that responsibility for years to come,” he said.
The UAE project follows a similar use of Avalanche by the California Department of Motor Vehicles. The DMV digitised 42 million car titles on the network, with the aim of making title transfers faster and easier.
Avalanche has also been used for tens of thousands of ticketing transactions during the FIFA World Cup 2026.
The move gives the UAE’s national digital identity infrastructure a dedicated blockchain environment while leaving the TDRA responsible for governance, access and oversight of the platform.
