1. What is national blockchain and how does it differ from public blockchain?
National blockchain is a digital infrastructure based on blockchain technology designed to serve digital identity, data verification, information sharing, and public services at national scale. Unlike public blockchains operated by anonymous communities, national blockchain operates under a permissioned blockchain model, where validator nodes are organizations with verified identities and clearly defined legal accountability. The core objective is not to issue cryptographic assets but to build a digital trust layer for digital government, the digital economy, and digital society.
🔑 Read more: Blockchain and decentralized identity: A new trust infrastructure for a secure and transparent digital society
The differences between national blockchain and public blockchain manifest across four main dimensions:
Participation model: National blockchain uses a permissioned network with licensed validators; public blockchain allows anyone to participate in validation without prior authorization.
Operational objective: National blockchain serves data governance, identity, and public services; public blockchain primarily supports digital assets and decentralized applications.
Legal accountability: Validators on national blockchain have verified identities and clear accountability; on public blockchain, responsibility is distributed among anonymous participants.
Data sovereignty: National blockchain ensures that critical data is managed in accordance with legislation and remains within the country's digital sovereignty.
🔑 Read more: Blockchain identified as a national strategic technology
These differences make national blockchain the appropriate foundation for digital identity systems, data verification, and national-scale digital trust infrastructure.
2. Why does a country need its own blockchain platform?
The motivation for building a national blockchain comes from three major needs:
Data sovereignty: Citizens' identity and transaction data should not depend on foreign infrastructure. This reflects the spirit of data sovereignty and Make in Vietnam.
Interoperable trust: Government agencies and enterprises need a shared, trustworthy data source for interoperability without manual cross-checking.
Transparency and anti-fraud: The immutability of the ledger enables tracing of every change, increasing transparency in public services and supply chains.
🔑 Read more: Why is Vietnam building a national blockchain platform?
The trend of building national blockchains is playing out globally. The European Union developed the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) to support digital identity and cross-border credential verification. China deployed the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) as national-scale blockchain infrastructure serving government and enterprises. Meanwhile, the United Nations and UNDP are promoting the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) model, treating trusted identity, payment, and data platforms as the foundation for digital economic and social development in the 21st century.
🔑 Read more: Vietnam's Layer 1 blockchain: when Vietnamese people own the core technology
3. The common functional layers of a national blockchain
A national blockchain is typically designed in a multi-layer architecture to ensure scalability, security, and the ability to serve diverse needs of government, enterprises, and citizens. Each layer plays a distinct role but is closely interconnected to form a unified digital trust infrastructure.
Common functional layers include:
Network and nodes: The distributed node network infrastructure, responsible for connectivity, synchronization, and data maintenance across the entire system.
Consensus layer: The consensus layer that defines how validators verify transactions and record data on the blockchain, while ensuring fault tolerance and network consistency.
Ledger and storage: The ledger and data storage layer, ensuring immutability, traceability, and verifiability of transaction history.
Smart contracts: The smart contract layer enabling business process automation and deployment of digital services on the blockchain.
Identity and trust services: The digital identity, data verification, and electronic credential services layer, typically complying with international standards such as W3C DID and Verifiable Credentials.
Applications layer: The application layer serving sectors such as digital identity, public services, traceability, digital assets, healthcare, education, and data governance.
This multi-layer architecture allows national blockchain to be not merely a data storage system, but a digital infrastructure platform capable of connecting, verifying, and sharing trusted data at national scale.
Modern national blockchain platforms are typically designed to simultaneously meet requirements for performance, security, scalability, and legal compliance. Common criteria include high transaction throughput (TPS), fast confirmation times, near-instant finality, privacy protection capability, digital identity standards, and national information security frameworks. These are the decisive factors for deploying blockchain in areas such as digital identity, public services, traceability, and inter-agency data sharing at national scale.
4. NDAChain and the hierarchical multichain architecture for national blockchain
To meet the requirements of performance, scalability, and data governance at national scale, NDAChain is designed according to the Rootchain-Centric Hierarchical Multichain Architecture. Rather than processing all transactions on a single blockchain, this model organizes the system into multiple specialized chains operating in parallel, connected and secured by trust from a central Rootchain.
🔑 Read more: NDAChain Positions Vietnam Among Asia’s Pioneering Nations in Decentralized Identity Under the W3C DID Standard
In this architecture, the Rootchain (NDAChain Trust Layer) serves as the core trust layer of the national blockchain, responsible for managing decentralized identity (DID), the lifecycle of Verifiable Credentials, governance policies, and permission mechanisms across the entire ecosystem. Domain Chains are deployed for specific sectors such as digital identity, enterprise data, traceability, digital assets, or public services. Each chain can operate and optimize performance independently while inheriting identity, trust, and policies from the Rootchain.
🔑 Read more: Blockchain in Traceability: Strategic Pillar for Vietnam's Digital Economy
Through the ChainHub interoperability layer, Domain Chains can exchange and verify data directly with one another using Verifiable Presentations (VP) without every transaction needing to pass through the Rootchain. This mechanism reduces load on the root chain while still ensuring traceability, governance, and access revocation capability at the national level.
Thanks to the hierarchical multichain architecture, NDAChain Layer 1 blockchain can scale flexibly both horizontally (adding new chains for new sectors) and vertically (increasing processing capacity within each chain), while maintaining data sovereignty, interoperability, and a unified trust layer for the entire digital economy.
🔑 Read more:Building Digital Trust: The Foundation for a Prosperous Vietnam
5. The legal framework for national blockchain in 2026
Vietnam's national blockchain ecosystem is being supported by an increasingly complete legal framework, creating the foundation for deploying data infrastructure and digital trust at national scale:
Digital Technology Industry Law 2025: For the first time brings digital assets, blockchain technology, and strategic digital infrastructure into the legal framework, creating the foundation for developing Vietnam's blockchain ecosystem and digital economy.
Decision 21/2026/QĐ-TTg: Places blockchain among the 10 national strategic technology groups, effective from July 1, 2026.
Data Law 2024 and Personal Data Protection Law 2025: Establish the legal basis for data governance, sharing, and protection in the digital environment.
National Digital Architecture Framework: Guides the development of national shared platforms, in which blockchain is considered an important infrastructure component for data verification and sharing.
Digital asset sandbox mechanism: Creates a controlled testing environment for blockchain models, digital assets, and innovative services before large-scale deployment.
🔑 Read more: Law on Digital Technology Industry Takes Effect from January 1, 2026
The combination of laws, policies, and pilot programs is creating an important legal foundation for national blockchain development, while ensuring a balance between innovation, data security, and digital sovereignty.
6. Application groups of national blockchain
The greatest value of national blockchain lies not in the technology itself, but in its ability to create a shared digital trust layer for the entire economy. On this foundation, data can be verified once, shared many times, and instantly cross-checked between agencies, organizations, and enterprises.
Key application groups of national blockchain include:
Digital identity and identity verification: Issuing, managing, and verifying digital identities for citizens, enterprises, and organizations in the digital environment.
Traceability: Bringing transparency to supply chains, supporting origin verification of agricultural products, food, pharmaceuticals, and export goods.
Public services and digital government: Verifying electronic records, automating administrative procedure processing, and enhancing data interoperability between government agencies.
Finance, banking, and eKYC: Supporting customer verification, fraud prevention, trusted data sharing, and optimization of digital transaction processes.
Degrees, certificates, and digital assets: Issuing, storing, and verifying degrees, certificates, or tamper-proof electronic documents.
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Although serving different sectors, all applications operate on the same national blockchain infrastructure, enabling data to be interoperated, traced, and verified in a unified manner across the entire country.
🔑 Read more: National blockchain in education: Digital diplomas, interoperable transcripts, and lifelong learning passports
7. National blockchain and the future of Vietnam's digital economy
National blockchain is becoming one of the foundational components of digital infrastructure, alongside data, digital identity, and cybersecurity. The role of blockchain is not to replace existing systems, but to create a digital trust layer that enables data, transactions, and digital assets to be verified, traced, and cross-checked nationwide.
When government agencies, enterprises, and citizens operate on a shared trusted platform, verification costs decrease, data interoperability improves, and digital services can scale further. This is the foundation for forming a transparent, efficient digital economy driven by data as the engine of growth.
🔑 Read more: National blockchain: the key to e-government and the digital economy
With the completion of the legal framework and the operationalization of national Layer 1 blockchain platforms like NDAChain, Vietnam is step by step building the digital trust infrastructure for the next phase of development, where trust is digitized, data is verified, and digital sovereignty is assured on a Make in Vietnam infrastructure.
Frequently asked questions about national blockchain
What is national blockchain?
National blockchain is a digital infrastructure based on blockchain technology designed to serve digital identity, data verification, traceability, and trusted information sharing between government, enterprises, and citizens. Unlike public blockchain focused on digital assets, national blockchain operates under a permissioned model, prioritizing data sovereignty, legal compliance, and accountability. In Vietnam, NDAChain is designed as the national Layer 1 blockchain platform, built to support digital trust infrastructure for digital government, the digital economy, and digital society.
How does national blockchain differ from public blockchain?
The biggest difference lies in the governance model and intended use. National blockchain uses licensed validator nodes with verified identities, serving digital identity, public services, and data governance. Public blockchains like Bitcoin or Ethereum allow anyone to participate in validation without authorization, primarily serving digital assets and decentralized applications. The two models are designed for different problems and complement rather than directly compete with each other.
In which sectors is national blockchain applied?
National blockchain can be applied across many sectors including digital identity, data verification, traceability, online public services, finance and banking, eKYC, digital degrees and certificates, and digital asset management. All these applications share a common trust infrastructure, enabling data to be interoperated, verified, and traced at national scale.
What legal framework supports the development of national blockchain in Vietnam?
Vietnam's national blockchain ecosystem is supported by several important legal instruments including the Digital Technology Industry Law 2025, the Data Law 2024, the Personal Data Protection Law 2025, and Decision 21/2026/QĐ-TTg placing blockchain among national strategic technologies. In addition, the National Digital Architecture Framework and sandbox mechanisms for digital assets are creating the foundation for blockchain to be widely applied in data governance and digital services.
