Vietnam accelerates digital economy with national blockchain

Vietnam has officially launched NDAChain, a zero-knowledge-proof-powered national blockchain platform designed to modernize its digital infrastructure and join the ranks of countries like China and the EU in deploying sovereign blockchain networks.

NDAChain said the launch of the national blockchain is a huge step in the government’s mission to support a secure, transparent and scalable digital ecosystem. 

NDAChain is a platform developed by the country’s National Data Association and supported by a consortium of 49 public-private validator nodes. The permissioned layer-1 blockchain operates a proof-of-authority consensus mechanism and is secured by zero-knowledge proofs.

Per the announcement, NDAChain can handle up to 3,600 transactions per second.

The platform serves as a foundational layer for data verification, and Vietnam is on track to achieve national rollout by 2026.

“Vietnam has chosen a hybrid data architecture that blends centralized and decentralized components. NDAChain acts as a protective layer for the nation’s live data, critical to our digital society and economy,” Nguyen Huy, head of technology at the National Data Association, said in a statement.

Addressing centralized data systems’ bottlenecks

Vietnam announced plans for a national blockchain strategy in October 2024, with the government saying at the time that its vision for the platform includes a blockchain-powered initiative for legal frameworks, digital infrastructure and innovation.

The broader project encompasses rollout across the national ecosystem by 2030.

In the next few months, the government targets NDAChain deployment and integration into the national data center. The timeline for this is the end of 2025. After that, Vietnam will gradually expand the blockchain initiative across all local governments and universities, with this expected to complete by the end of 2026. 

“The next phase will focus on workforce development, international collaboration, and building Layer 2 applications tailored for various sectors,” NDAChain noted.

Vietnam’s blockchain project seeks to address some of the key issues that impact centralized data models, including vulnerability to cyberattacks and scalability. Critical systems that will benefit from blockchain technology integration include education, healthcare, e-government, finance and logistics. 

With its national blockchain going live, Vietnam joins more than 50 countries that have launched similar initiatives, including China, the European Union and South Korea. China’s BSN went live in 2020.