Avalanche’s role in UAE’s national digital identity system remains unverified despite growing regional presence

Claims circulating on social media suggest the UAE has tapped Avalanche technology to run its national digital identity system and digital vault. The reality is more nuanced, and quite a bit less definitive. UAE Pass, the country’s flagship digital identity platform, does use blockchain technology to secure its document storage system. But no public documentation from the UAE government or Avalanche Labs explicitly confirms that Avalanche is the protocol powering it. What UAE Pass actually is Launched in 2018, UAE Pass is the product of a collaboration between Digital Dubai, the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), and the Department of Government Enablement in Abu Dhabi. The platform now serves over 11 million registered users and connects to more than 15,000 services from upwards of 350 providers. Among its features is a digital vault, a secure repository where citizens can store, manage, and share official documents. The vault is described as being “powered by blockchain technology” in official UAE Pass materials. That phrasing matters, because it confirms blockchain is in the stack but stops well short of naming any specific protocol. Avalanche...