Qore3 and Bhutan’s GCIT Partner to Bring Blockchain Technology to a Himalayan Village
Singapore, Singapore, October 12th, 2026, Chainwire
The long-term partnership, formalised through an MOU signed during TOKEN2049 Week, spans applied research and DeFi education for students, faculty, researchers and Bhutan’s wider tech ecosystem
Singapore digital asset infrastructure firm Qore3 and Gyalpozhing College of Information Technology (GCIT), a college of the Royal University of Bhutan, are turning a Himalayan farming village into a testbed for blockchain-based community finance. Their first joint applied research initiative will equip 21 rural households in Rukha Village with MPC wallet solutions, introduce digital liquidity through a utility token-based model for community finance, and pilot AI-assisted digital wallets.
Under Project Digital Village, Qore3 and GCIT will work with residents of Rukha, in Wangdue Phodrang district, to show how blockchain can support the agricultural transactions they carry out, on terms set by the community, and how on-chain technology can strengthen local livelihoods. The project starts from a simple question: can decentralised technologies deliver value to rural households, not just to urban treasuries?
The choice of Rukha Village is symbolic. It was the starting point of an integrated community development programme by the Tarayana Foundation, founded in 2003 by Her Majesty Queen Mother Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, which was later extended to more than 150 villages across Bhutan. Tarayana is a partner in the project, alongside Switzerland’s Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), which brings together blockchain industry players, educators and researchers to develop real-world applications for distributed ledger technology.
Fieldwork began in August 2026, when GCIT and Tarayana researchers, joined by GCIT President Audrey Low and Qore3 Head of Partnerships Jeffrey Cheong, visited Rukha to assess the village’s needs and existing community practices. Mr Cheong then led a workshop at GCIT on multi-agent AI development for faculty and students, laying the groundwork for the tools the project will develop on white-label technology stacks.
Project Digital Village builds on a relationship that began in early 2025, when Qore3 and GCIT started collaborating on capacity development, curriculum design and talent recruitment. Their recently signed MOU extends this into a long-term partnership to champion the creation, advocacy and adoption of blockchain solutions in Bhutan.
“Most of the digital asset industry is built for institutions in financial centres. Project Digital Village asks a harder question: what does it look like when it’s built for a village?” said Ong Zhen Guang, Director of Qore3. “The technology has to be simple, the controls have to be clear, and trust has to be earned one household at a time. That discipline will make us better at what we build, and at how we collaborate with institutions like GCIT.”
“Blockchain and digital assets are highly technical subjects that few people grasp in a single session,” said Audrey Low, President of GCIT. “The goal of Project Digital Village is to simplify the technology and make education and tech inclusion accessible to everyone, creating social impact at the edge of a fast-moving digital economy.”
The MOU was signed at Digital After Hours, a networking evening Qore3 hosted at CHIJMES during TOKEN2049 Week. The event also featured a panel on building trusted infrastructure for institutional crypto, with speakers from Chainalysis, NEAR Foundation, Kiln and Failsafe.
About Qore3
Qore3 is a Singapore-based digital asset infrastructure company that helps institutions access, secure, and operate their on-chain holdings. Its platform combines a non-custodial MPC wallet with role-based controls and approval thresholds, multi-chain treasury operations and agentic-ready workflows that keep automated actions scoped, policy-bound and fully auditable. Qore3 serves institutions and funds, fintechs and payment platforms, and developers, and is a member of the Singapore FinTech Association. Learn more at www.qore3.com or follow Qore3 on LinkedIn and on X.
About GCIT
Gyalpozhing College of Information Technology (GCIT) is a college of the Royal University of Bhutan and the country’s leading institute for Computer Science, Cyber Security and Digital Innovation. Based in Kabesa, Thimphu, and rooted in the values of Gross National Happiness(GNH), GCIT offers programmes through its School of Future Computing (SFC) and School of Interactive Design and Development (SIDD), integrating real-world industry projects, technopreneurship and applied research into its curriculum. Learn more at www.gcit.edu.bt.
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