‘Ethiopia ID System Is Live,’ Cardano Founder Responds to Critics

• Critics claim the national ID deal between Cardano and Ethiopia had terminated.
• However, Cardano’s founder said the ID system is now operational.
• Hoskinson clarified it was a student-only credential management, not an entire nation.

On Wednesday, Charles Hoskinson, the Cardano network founder, fired back at critics from the crypto community who claimed the 2021 national ID deal between the blockchain and the Ethiopian government had been laid to rest.

According to the critics, the government has opted for its digital ID system after it got tired of waiting for Cardano’s development team, Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), as “they were too slow.” Hoskinson described the claim as slanderous, saying the Ethiopian government currently uses the Cardano ID solution.

The Cardano founder agreed that Ethiopia has different ID systems in operation; however, he clarified that the contract was with the Ministry of Education (MoE), which was never intended to be a nation-scale ID system. Instead, it was a credential management system specifically designed for students rather than a comprehensive identification system for an entire nation.

Furthermore, Hoskinson stated that the student ID system could be part of more extensive identification management in the future, although it was not initially designed for the purpose.

Additionally, Hoskinson said since the system is live, it is expected to cover one million students before the end of 2023. Originally, the contract was to cover five million students by the end of 2021, but the Russian-Ukranian war stalled the progress, according to Cardano’s founder.

Notably, the deal between Cardano’s parent company and the Ethiopian government was called ‘Atala PRISM.’ The initiative uses Cardano blockchain technology to provide secure and tamper-proof identification for individuals and help with other social and economic activities such as voting and banking.