Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has presented preliminary plans for a new digital identity and citizenship framework known as “Etherian Citizenship” during a recent internal meeting at the Ethereum Foundation, according to sources familiar with the discussion.
The initiative is described as a long-term research and infrastructure concept aimed at exploring decentralized civic identity and post-national citizenship on Ethereum. The idea forms the conceptual basis of what is now being referred to as the Etherian Republic — a symbolic digital nation built on cryptographic trust rather than territorial governance.
From National Identity to On-Chain Citizenship
The proposed model envisions citizenship as a voluntary, blockchain-native status, independent of geographic borders or state-issued documents. Instead of traditional passports, identity would be represented through cryptographically verifiable on-chain credentials, fully controlled by the individual.
According to the concept, participation, governance rights, and reputation would be recorded directly on Ethereum, forming a persistent civic identity layer beyond traditional institutions.
Intellectual Foundations
The Etherian Citizenship concept is closely aligned with Buterin’s previous research on digital identity and decentralized governance, particularly:
• the concept of Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) as non-transferable identity primitives,
• the Decentralized Society (DeSoc) framework,
• and his work on blockchain-based coordination mechanisms.
These ideas were outlined in several of Buterin’s key publications, including Soulbound (2022), Coordination (2021), and Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul (2022).
According to Buterin, Ethereum should be viewed not only as a financial network, but also as a coordination layer for large-scale social systems.
How the Etherian Republic Could Function
Sources suggest the Etherian Republic may introduce:
• an on-chain citizenship registry,
• digital Etherian passports,
• decentralized governance via smart contracts,
• and reputation-based participation scoring.
In this model, traditional political structures are replaced by protocol-level governance. Borders are represented by wallet addresses, and enforcement is carried out algorithmically through smart contracts.
A Shift Toward Post-National Governance
The Etherian Republic reflects a broader trend in Web3 toward post-national digital governance, where identity, law, and participation are defined by code rather than by state authorities.
While the initiative remains at an early conceptual stage and no technical launch timeline has been announced, observers note that the project aligns with Ethereum’s broader transition from purely financial infrastructure toward civilizational-scale applications.
At this stage, the Ethereum Foundation has not released an official public roadmap for Etherian Citizenship.
Key Sources
• Soulbound — https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2022/01/26/soulbound.html
• Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul — https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4105763
• Coordination — https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2021/09/26/coordination.html
• Governance, Part 2: Plutocracy Is Still Bad — https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2021/08/16/plutocracy.html
