A case study from Southeast Asia, ShareRing, and Transformational
Emerging markets across Southeast Asia are undergoing rapid digital transformation. Governments, enterprises, and platforms are digitising services at speed, often under pressure to improve access, reduce fraud, and meet evolving compliance requirements.
Yet identity infrastructure has struggled to keep pace.
In many markets, identity systems remain paper-based, fragmented across institutions, or concentrated in centralised databases that are costly to operate and increasingly vulnerable to misuse or data leaks. For enterprise platforms operating at scale, the result is a familiar tension: rising compliance costs, growing privacy risk, and friction for end users.
This is the context in which Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) becomes not just relevant, but necessary.
The identity challenge in Southeast Asia
Across Southeast Asia, identity systems face a combination of structural and operational constraints:
- Continued reliance on paper based processes
- Centralised databases that create single points of failure
- High cost of compliance for enterprises operating across sectors
- Ongoing exposure to data breaches and misuse
For enterprise platforms, these constraints limit scale. For governments, they introduce risk. For users, they reduce trust.
The “Analog Anchor” Holding Back a Digital Nation
Thailand is a mobile-first “Leapfrog” economy, yet the reality on the ground is still buried in paper. There is a massive gap and paradox between high-speed digital services, Super Apps (LINE, Grab, etc…), and heavily analog-based onboarding required by other daily services.
Thai people and businesses face the reality and inefficiency of verifying their identity and its verification process on a daily basis:
- The “Certified True Copy” Cycle: Onboarding still requires stacks of physical paper. Citizens and business owners must print, photocopy, and manually sign the same documents: Thai ID, House Registration, Company Affidavit, etc… repeatedly. Every page requires a manual signature, only for that data to be manually re-entered into another system.
- The Messenger Economy: In Bangkok, fleets of messengers roam the city to deliver physical document folders. When a high-value digital transaction depends on a motorbike in traffic, the economy isn’t truly digital. This is a massive operational bottleneck and a security risk. Our personal data go through so many hands, frauds and stolen identity should not come as a surprise.
- Zero Portability: There is no shared trust. A document verified by one bank or government department cannot be easily shared with another. This leads to “Verification Fatigue,” where users must prove the same facts to different entities over and over again.
By creating Digital Twins of official documents using ShareRing’s engine, we are moving away from messengers and photocopies toward a future of Instant, Verified Portability. We are turning “paperwork” into a digital asset that is as mobile as the person who owns it.
What self sovereign identity means in practice
Self Sovereign Identity is often discussed in abstract terms. In practice, its value is straightforward.
SSI means the user retains control over their own digital credentials and chooses what information to share, when, and with whom. Verification can occur without copying or storing personal data in central systems, reducing exposure while maintaining assurance.
For enterprise platforms, this shifts identity from something that must be stored and protected, to something that can be verified without possession.
The result is a model that is more resilient, more privacy preserving, and better aligned with emerging regulatory expectations.
Why SSI matters specifically in emerging markets
In emerging markets, the advantages of SSI are amplified.
- It reduces the need for large, centralised data stores
- It lowers long-term compliance and operational costs
- It supports inclusion without weakening assurance
- It enables interoperability across public and private services
Rather than replacing existing systems overnight, SSI can be layered into current workflows, allowing institutions to modernise incrementally while improving trust and security.
Case study, ShareRing and Transformational
This dynamic is illustrated by the partnership between ShareRing and Transformational in Southeast Asia.
Transformational is a Thailand-based digital transformation specialist working with large enterprises, state owned organisations, and regulators. Unlike traditional consultancies, Transformational operates as a venture builder, delivering real products embedded directly into production environments.
Their clients include major players across retail, food and beverage, and public sector services, all operating at national scale.
As a Value Added Reseller of ShareRing’s SDKs, Transformational integrates privacy-first credential infrastructure directly into the platforms and services they build.
Why ShareRing was selected
Transformational’s decision to partner with ShareRing was driven by alignment across several dimensions:
- A shared focus on privacy by design
- Infrastructure that supports regulatory assurance without central data storage
- Flexibility to integrate into existing enterprise and government systems
- A practical approach to deployment at scale
Under the leadership of Ariya Banomyong, former Country Head of Google Thailand and Managing Director of LINE Thailand, Transformational brings deep experience in scaling platforms used daily by millions of people.
The partnership reflects a deliberate choice to treat identity as infrastructure, not a bolt-on feature.
From concept to delivery
Rather than positioning SSI as a future vision, this partnership is grounded in live delivery.
Transformational is working closely with regulators and state owned enterprises to support Thailand’s Digital Credentials framework and standards. Projects are being architected for deployment within real operational environments, not pilots disconnected from production systems.
What can be referenced today:
- Signed partnership and VAR relationship
- Active architectural planning and integration work
- Alignment with national digital credential standards
Outcomes are framed in operational terms, reduced friction, improved compliance alignment, and safer handling of personal data, rather than speculative metrics.
Why this matters for enterprise platforms
For enterprise platforms operating in emerging markets, identity is no longer just a compliance requirement. It is a structural dependency.
The ShareRing and Transformational partnership demonstrates how Self Sovereign Identity can be introduced as a stabilising layer, reducing risk while enabling scale.
SSI does not remove the role of institutions. It strengthens them by allowing verification without unnecessary data accumulation, and by aligning technology with how people already expect digital services to work.
Looking ahead
As Southeast Asia continues to digitise at pace, the question is no longer whether identity systems will change, but how.
The shift toward user controlled, privacy preserving credentials is already underway. The role of enterprise platforms will be to explore how this model can be adopted responsibly, incrementally, and in alignment with local regulatory frameworks.
For organisations operating at scale, now is the right moment to understand what Self Sovereign Identity enables, and where it fits within the next generation of digital infrastructure.
Written by Tim Bos and Ariya Banomyong