Throughout the history of human development, prosperity has come not only from resources or technology, but from humanity's ability to build trust and coordinate at scale. From law and currency to corporations, all operate on the basis of "shared beliefs" accepted by society.

However, in the digital era - where most interactions take place online—traditional methods of building trust are revealing many limitations. This is precisely the moment when digital trust must become a new infrastructure that needs to be redesigned from the ground up.

What Is Digital Trust in the Data Era?

Trust is not merely a psychological state, but a form of social infrastructure. In the digital space, where fraud, fake news, and information manipulation are becoming increasingly sophisticated, Digital Trust has become a core value for determining "who is who," "what is real," and protecting those who do business with integrity.

Vietnam currently possesses many outstanding individuals, who can be likened to powerful "processors," but we lack a sufficiently robust trust operating system to connect them into a "social supercomputer." At present, social trust still mainly exists within narrow circles (family, friends), leading to high transaction costs because every party has to bear additional risk costs to protect themselves.

To solve this problem, digital trust cannot rely on personal perception alone but must be designed as a technical infrastructure based on data that can be independently authenticated and verified. When trust is "encoded" into immutable digital evidence, transaction risks are minimized, allowing talent to converge and all components of society to benefit together from an open data economy.

Why Does Vietnam Need a Digital Trust Infrastructure?

Vietnam is entering a phase of accelerated digital transformation, supported by a vast human resource base and market. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, Vietnam's digital economy in 2023 was estimated at approximately 16.5% of GDP and is projected to potentially reach 20% of GDP by 2025. At the same time, Vietnam currently has more than 77 million internet users—equivalent to nearly 80% of the population—creating a vast digital space for transactions and interactions.

However, one of the largest bottlenecks lies not in technology but in trust. According to a PwC report, around 49% of CEOs globally believe that a lack of trust is a major barrier to growth, while in developing markets, the costs of verification and risk management can account for as much as 5–10% of transaction value.

In Vietnam, trust still mainly exists within familiar circles such as family, friends, or long-standing partners. This results in:

• Cooperation that depends on personal relationships rather than transparent systems

• High costs for verification, inspection, and risk prevention

• Difficulty in scaling businesses and ecosystems

In other words, Vietnam has many highly capable individuals and organizations, but lacks a "digital trust operating system" to connect them into collective strength.

In this context, building a unified digital trust infrastructure has become a prerequisite to:

• Standardize and connect data at the national scale

• Reduce transaction costs and improve operational efficiency

• Create a transparent environment to attract investment and promote innovation

Digital trust, therefore, is not merely a technological issue, but the foundation for Vietnam to scale its development in the data era.

NDAChain: The National Blockchain Platform for Digital Trust

NDAChain is positioned as Vietnam's Layer 1 blockchain platform, serving as the infrastructure layer for national digital trust. More than just a data storage technology, NDAChain enables identity authentication, data verification, and the construction of transparent digital systems at scale.

🔑 Read more: NDAChain – The National Blockchain Platform: The "Backbone" of Digital Data in Vietnam's Digital Transformation Architecture

1. State-Led, Enterprise-Accompanied

NDAChain is designed according to the strategic philosophy: "The State leads, enterprises participate, citizens benefit." Unlike public blockchains such as Ethereum or Solana, which run freely and. without ownership, NDAChain is a permissioned blockchain.

This means that each validator node in the network is operated by State agencies and reputable economic corporations (such as Masan, VNVC, SunGroup, Sovico, MISA, etc.). This design ensures the system operates responsibly and complies with the law while still maintaining the decentralization needed to withstand cyberattacks.

2. NDAChain: A Protective Fence Around the Data Treasury

If the National Data Center is likened to a "centralized treasury" storing the information of 100 million citizens, then NDAChain is the distributed protective fence surrounding it. In legacy systems, hackers only need to attack a single point to bring down the entire system. With NDAChain, data is verified and stored across multiple independent validator nodes, making a simultaneous attack nearly impossible and ensuring the integrity and sovereignty of national data.

3. Outstanding Core Technology

NDAChain is not merely an idea but a modern technological infrastructure with impressive metrics:

• Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus mechanism: Enables fast transaction validation (1,200 – 3,600 transactions per second) and is extremely energy-efficient compared to legacy blockchain technologies.

• Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP): Allows users to prove that a condition is true (for example, being over 18 years of age) without disclosing the original data (date of birth, ID number), ensuring absolute privacy.

• Compliance with international standards: The system is compatible with W3C DID, Verifiable Credentials, and GDPR standards, ready for Vietnamese products to "set sail to the open sea" and connect with global infrastructures such as the European Union's EBSI TRACE4EU.

The NDAChain Ecosystem: A Three-Tier Structure for the Digital Nation

The national digital asset and data ecosystem built on NDAChain comprises four closely interconnected pillars:

1. Platform Layer: This is the NDAChain network itself, where ownership of digital assets is recorded and authenticated, identities are certified, and transaction data is stored immutably.

2. System Layer: Includes the national digital identity mechanisms (NDADID) and standards for secure data exchange.

3. Application Layer: The space for innovation in both the public and private sectors, where specific solutions are deployed such as NDATrace (origin tracing), identity wallets, public administration, healthcare, education, and more.

4. Governance Layer: Establishes the legal framework, sandbox mechanisms (controlled experimentation), and oversight standards so that the system operates stably and is internationally compatible.

🔑 Read more: What Makes NDAChain – Vietnam's National Blockchain – Special? 

Key Applications Building Digital Trust for All

Built on the NDAChain platform, two flagship applications have been transforming how Vietnam's digital economy operates:

1. NDAKey: Empowering Citizens with Data Sovereignty, Building Digital Trust

Digital trust begins with accurately identifying who is participating in a transaction. However, instead of collecting data into a centralized server warehouse (which is vulnerable to leaks), the NDAKey solution uses a decentralized identifier (DID) architecture.

• Data self-sovereignty: Users directly encrypt, store, and control their data on their own personal devices.

• Selective Disclosure: Users share only the exact information needed for each specific purpose (for example, simply confirming "eligibility to use a service" instead of handing over a full copy of their citizen ID card).

• Real-time anti-fraud protection: Integrates AI Liveness Detection technology to prevent bots or Deepfake videos from creating fake accounts, ensuring "real people, real identities."

2. NDATrace: Establishing a "Digital Passport" for Vietnamese Goods to Reach the World

NDATrace is the application of NDAChain in the goods economy, enabling supply chain digital transformation and enhancing the credibility of Vietnamese brands in international markets.

• Unique Identifier (UID): Each product is assigned an identifier in accordance with the international GS1 standard, allowing consumers to independently verify origin.

• Value chain transparency: The entire process—from input materials, production, and logistics to distribution—is recorded immutably on the blockchain. This data is not merely a one-sided declaration by the enterprise, but is endorsed by the State.

• Outstanding economic efficiency: It is estimated that, when shifting from fragmented traceability systems to NDATrace, enterprises can save 40–60% in operating costs. More importantly, it helps Vietnamese exports (agricultural products, food, pharmaceuticals) more easily overcome the stringent technical barriers of the EU, the U.S., and Japan.

🔑 Read more: Blockchain in Origin Tracing in Vietnam 

Strategic Vision and Legal Framework

The development of NDAChain is not a stand-alone technology project, but part of the Government's strategic vision:

• Resolution 57-NQ/TW and the Law on Digital Technology Industry: Affirm the role of blockchain as one of the strategic national technologies for ensuring data security and technological self-reliance.

• Resolution 05/2025/NQ-CP: Pilots the crypto-asset market, moving digital economic activities out of the "legal gray zone" into a phase of controlled transparency.

Vietnam is moving from the stage of "technology experimentation" to that of an "economic sector with legal personality," where digital assets will become a new productive resource that can be transacted, mortgaged, and valued like genuine assets.

Challenges and Implementation Roadmap

Although initial achievements have been made, the journey of building a digital trust infrastructure still faces many challenges:

1. Data standardization: Technology only delivers value when input data is synchronized and unified across all ministries, sectors, and localities.

2. Awareness and human resources: Many enterprises still view origin tracing or blockchain as a mandatory cost rather than a competitive advantage. We need a workforce that understands technology, law, and business at the same time.

3. Public–Private Partnership (PPP): This is a crucial factor. The State plays the role of designing the legal framework, while private enterprises will be the direct implementing force, operating the system flexibly.

For a Powerful Digital Vietnam

NDAChain and the surrounding ecosystem are the very first bricks building a future in which data becomes an asset rather than a risk. When every transaction, product, and identity is endorsed by a shared, transparent infrastructure, we will unleash the enormous mental resources currently being expended on suspicion or on dealing with institutional bottlenecks.

Digital trust is the very catalyst for talent to converge. No one needs to sacrifice everything—each citizen, each enterprise simply needs to contribute a portion of "trusted data" to the shared NDAChain system, and Vietnam will confidently affirm its position on the global technology map.

The journey from physical Vietnam to digital Vietnam begins with your very own trust in a safe, sustainable national data infrastructure.