Executive Summary
Multipolitan’s Digital State Project is a flagship report exploring where statehood is headed as AI, Metaverse and blockchain reshape identity, trust, and the machinery of governance.
The report dives into world-changing ideas such as on-chain citizenship, e-governance protocols, agentic nation states, orbital infrastructure, space sovereignty, and metaverse as a medium for human connection.
The report also highlights a major shift in how the world governs itself. Jurisdictions are learning to think like startups, ministries are working as design labs, and citizens with digital IDs expect not just faster paperwork but smarter services that fit their lives. From Palau’s digital residency to Tuvalu’s plan for digital nationhood to Ukraine’s AI-enabled governance, a physical-digital fabric is taking shape that links virtual and real life. Through global research, expert dialogues, and cross-sector collaboration, the report asks one central question: what does it mean to be a citizen, a state, or a society in the digital age, and how does sovereignty look when it's no longer tied to geography?
Executive Summary
Multipolitan’s Digital State Project is a flagship report exploring where statehood is headed as AI, Metaverse and blockchain reshape identity, trust, and the machinery of governance.
The report dives into world-changing ideas such as on-chain citizenship, e-governance protocols, agentic nation states, orbital infrastructure, space sovereignty, and metaverse as a medium for human connection.
The report also highlights a major shift in how the world governs itself. Jurisdictions are learning to think like startups, ministries are working as design labs, and citizens with digital IDs expect not just faster paperwork but smarter services that fit their lives. From Palau’s digital residency to Tuvalu’s plan for digital nationhood to Ukraine’s AI-enabled governance, a physical-digital fabric is taking shape that links virtual and real life. Through global research, expert dialogues, and cross-sector collaboration, the report asks one central question: what does it mean to be a citizen, a state, or a society in the digital age, and how does sovereignty look when it's no longer tied to geography?
Multipolitan’s Digital State Project is a flagship report exploring where statehood is headed as AI, Metaverse and blockchain reshape identity, trust, and the machinery of governance.
The report dives into world-changing ideas such as on-chain citizenship, e-governance protocols, agentic nation states, orbital infrastructure, space sovereignty, and metaverse as a medium for human connection.
The report also highlights a major shift in how the world governs itself. Jurisdictions are learning to think like startups, ministries are working as design labs, and citizens with digital IDs expect not just faster paperwork but smarter services that fit their lives. From Palau’s digital residency to Tuvalu’s plan for digital nationhood to Ukraine’s AI-enabled governance, a physical-digital fabric is taking shape that links virtual and real life. Through global research, expert dialogues, and cross-sector collaboration, the report asks one central question: what does it mean to be a citizen, a state, or a society in the digital age, and how does sovereignty look when it's no longer tied to geography?
Introduction
This report brings together eight pieces - eight ways of imagining the future of governance and statehood. Each contributor stands at the front of innovation, showing us what the digital state looks like when it’s built by those who dare to reimagine it from the inside out.
Nirbhay Handa opens with Nations as a Service: The Next Frontier of Governance. He starts with a simple but radical idea: “We will soon log into nations, not just fly into them.”
William Wang brings that idea to life through Palau’s experiment in digital nationhood in “Palau’s Digital Residency: A State-Backed ID for a Borderless Economy”.
James Ellsmoor, founder of Island Innovation, shares a more urgent perspective. In Innovation Born of Necessity: How Islands Like Tuvalu Are Shaping the Future of Digital Nationhood, he writes from a world where digital transformation is driven by survival.
Briar Prestidge, CEO of Prestidge Group and advisor to INTERPOL, brings a human lens to the digital revolution. In The Future Is Virtual - and Deeply Human, she looks at the metaverse as a space where empathy, identity, and creativity evolve in unexpected ways.
Oleksandr Bornyakov, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, reflects on the milestones that turned Ukraine into one of the world’s leading examples of digital governance. In “A State in a Smartphone,” he describes how the country built Diia, a platform that made public services accessible to millions.
Hrish Lotlikar, co-founder of SuperWorld, takes us further into the fusion of physical and digital. In Inside SuperWorld’s Vision for the Digital Layer of Reality, he shares his vision for Superworlds, where every place on Earth has a programmable twin, where AR, AI, and ownership turn geography into an interactive layer of reality.
Luukas Ilves, one of the architects of Estonia’s digital success, and now an advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation. In his article, he looks ahead to the next frontier in What It Takes to Build the Agentic State.
Finally, Anna Hazlett, founder of Azure X, makes the case for Orbital Infrastructure as a Pillar of the Digital State, showing how space now powers communications, Earth observation, AI, and mission services - and how the Gulf is making it investable with sovereign capital and rapid procurement.
Together, these 8 contributors capture a crucial moment in history, where technology is rewriting the logic of governance and trust.
Introduction
This report brings together eight pieces - eight ways of imagining the future of governance and statehood. Each contributor stands at the front of innovation, showing us what the digital state looks like when it’s built by those who dare to reimagine it from the inside out.
Nirbhay Handa opens with Nations as a Service: The Next Frontier of Governance. He starts with a simple but radical idea: “We will soon log into nations, not just fly into them.”
William Wang brings that idea to life through Palau’s experiment in digital nationhood in “Palau’s Digital Residency: A State-Backed ID for a Borderless Economy”.
James Ellsmoor, founder of Island Innovation, shares a more urgent perspective. In Innovation Born of Necessity: How Islands Like Tuvalu Are Shaping the Future of Digital Nationhood, he writes from a world where digital transformation is driven by survival.
Briar Prestidge, CEO of Prestidge Group and advisor to INTERPOL, brings a human lens to the digital revolution. In The Future Is Virtual - and Deeply Human, she looks at the metaverse as a space where empathy, identity, and creativity evolve in unexpected ways.
Oleksandr Bornyakov, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, reflects on the milestones that turned Ukraine into one of the world’s leading examples of digital governance. In “A State in a Smartphone,” he describes how the country built Diia, a platform that made public services accessible to millions.
Hrish Lotlikar, co-founder of SuperWorld, takes us further into the fusion of physical and digital. In Inside SuperWorld’s Vision for the Digital Layer of Reality, he shares his vision for Superworlds, where every place on Earth has a programmable twin, where AR, AI, and ownership turn geography into an interactive layer of reality.
Luukas Ilves, one of the architects of Estonia’s digital success, and now an advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation. In his article, he looks ahead to the next frontier in What It Takes to Build the Agentic State.
Finally, Anna Hazlett, founder of Azure X, makes the case for Orbital Infrastructure as a Pillar of the Digital State, showing how space now powers communications, Earth observation, AI, and mission services - and how the Gulf is making it investable with sovereign capital and rapid procurement.
Together, these 8 contributors capture a crucial moment in history, where technology is rewriting the logic of governance and trust.
This report brings together eight pieces - eight ways of imagining the future of governance and statehood. Each contributor stands at the front of innovation, showing us what the digital state looks like when it’s built by those who dare to reimagine it from the inside out.
Nirbhay Handa opens with Nations as a Service: The Next Frontier of Governance. He starts with a simple but radical idea: “We will soon log into nations, not just fly into them.”
William Wang brings that idea to life through Palau’s experiment in digital nationhood in “Palau’s Digital Residency: A State-Backed ID for a Borderless Economy”.
James Ellsmoor, founder of Island Innovation, shares a more urgent perspective. In Innovation Born of Necessity: How Islands Like Tuvalu Are Shaping the Future of Digital Nationhood, he writes from a world where digital transformation is driven by survival.
Briar Prestidge, CEO of Prestidge Group and advisor to INTERPOL, brings a human lens to the digital revolution. In The Future Is Virtual - and Deeply Human, she looks at the metaverse as a space where empathy, identity, and creativity evolve in unexpected ways.
Oleksandr Bornyakov, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, reflects on the milestones that turned Ukraine into one of the world’s leading examples of digital governance. In “A State in a Smartphone,” he describes how the country built Diia, a platform that made public services accessible to millions.
Hrish Lotlikar, co-founder of SuperWorld, takes us further into the fusion of physical and digital. In Inside SuperWorld’s Vision for the Digital Layer of Reality, he shares his vision for Superworlds, where every place on Earth has a programmable twin, where AR, AI, and ownership turn geography into an interactive layer of reality.
Luukas Ilves, one of the architects of Estonia’s digital success, and now an advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation. In his article, he looks ahead to the next frontier in What It Takes to Build the Agentic State.
Finally, Anna Hazlett, founder of Azure X, makes the case for Orbital Infrastructure as a Pillar of the Digital State, showing how space now powers communications, Earth observation, AI, and mission services - and how the Gulf is making it investable with sovereign capital and rapid procurement.
Together, these 8 contributors capture a crucial moment in history, where technology is rewriting the logic of governance and trust.
Contributors
Nirbhay Handa is the Co-Founder & CEO of Multipolitan, The Platform for Borderless Living. He formerly served as the Group Head of Business Development & Asia Head of Private Clients at Henley & Partners. Nirbhay has advised presidents, ministers, and governments on sovereign innovation strategies that generate tangible FDI.
Anna Hazlett leads AzurX, a UAE-based advisory and venture firm helping space and space-enabled tech companies scale. She also serves on the AED 2B Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund’s Advisory & Decision Committee, mentors Saudi Arabia’s CST Space Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, and sits on the Global Space Awards Steering Committee.
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Luukas Ilves is an advisor to Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation. Previously, as Estonia’s Undersecretary for Digital Transformation and Government CIO, he helped advance the nation’s digital systems.
Before founding SuperWorld, Hrish co-founded Rogue Initiative Studios, a Hollywood-based immersive entertainment company partnered with director Michael Bay. His career has spanned Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood, with previous roles at Eastlabs, Toptal, Spencer Trask Ventures, UBS Investment Bank, and HSBC Securities.
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Oleksandr Bornyakov has been serving as Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation since 2019. He was one of the visionaries and architects behind the Diia.City and Brave1 projects and is now driving the development of Ukraine’s venture ecosystem through the Diia.City Invest initiative.
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Briar Prestidge, CEO of Prestidge Group, is an award-winning documentary producer, Web3 evangelist, and futurist. She is also a metaverse board advisor to INTERPOL's Investigations and Forensics team, as well as a board advisor to Humanity+, the Metaverse Fashion Council, and serves as a strategic advisor for Imagin3 Studio.
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James Ellsmoor is the Founder and CEO of Island Innovation, a global consultancy connecting island and remote regions to share knowledge and scale sustainable solutions. He also co-founded Solar Head of State, an NGO partnering with governments to advance renewable energy across small island developing states.
William Wang is the CEO behind RNS.ID, the technology partner powering Palau’s first-of-its-kind Digital Residency program. He works at the intersection of sovereignty, identity, and Web3 infrastructure.
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