Mainstream science and technology studies (STS) often overlooks that technologies, concepts, and strategies for post-modern decision making and social deliberation are impractical for small jurisdictions. Decentralised identity is no exception, but systematically overlooked by the literature.

The majority of small states are not helped by being referred to poster child jurisdictions like Palau, Singapore, the Marshall Islands, or Estonia. Instead, for them to truly benefit from credential-enabled governance they require systematic research that accounts for the indivisibility of cost for small-scale governance and the diversity of small island societies.

For this reason, DVCTVS formalises PhD research that is undertaken by Ben Biedermann at the Islands and Small States Institute at the University of Malta. Funds raised from this quadratic funding round will go towards field research on digital identity-enabled governance in small island states.