The global digitization of government infrastructure is progressing at high speed. The focus is on the “50-in-5” initiative, which aims to support at least 50 countries in establishing or expanding so-called digital public infrastructure (DPI) by the end of 2028.
This refers primarily to three central building blocks: digital identity, digital payment systems and state-organized data exchange. It is precisely these three elements that the initiative itself explicitly refers to as the core of an interoperable digital infrastructure.
The project is supported by the United Nations Development Programme UNDP, the Digital Public Goods Alliance and the Gates Foundation, among others. The Gates Foundation also describes its strategy clearly: states are to connect digital identity systems, real-time payment systems and data exchange platforms. Digital credentials, registers, digital signatures and systems for consent to data exchange are to be added.
The direction is clear: identity, money and personal data are becoming more and more closely linked in terms of technology.
At this year’s 50-in-5 awards, precisely such projects were awarded. Benin was awarded for its digital identity infrastructure, Brazil for systems such as GOV.BR and the digital payment system PIX, Indonesia for its cross-border QR payment system.
New participants also show where the journey is heading. Pakistan became the 42nd country to join the initiative in October 2026. There, the national digital identity NADRA, the real-time payment system Raast and a national data exchange platform are to be connected to form an interoperable ecosystem. Citizens should be able to identify themselves once, release data and then receive state benefits and payments seamlessly across different authorities.
Officially, this is sold as progress: less bureaucracy, faster social benefits, easier banking transactions and better state services.
But exactly the same architecture also opens up completely new possibilities for state control.
If a digital identity can be technically linked to payment transactions, property registers, government services, health data and other personal information, an infrastructure is created in which access to money and services can be increasingly linked to digital identification.
This is also where the debate about programmable money becomes relevant.
The 50-in-5 initiative itself does not declare that it wants to introduce programmable central bank currencies worldwide. That would be too far-reaching as an assertion.
But the technical prerequisites that would be needed for this are exactly similar to those components that are currently being built worldwide: unique digital identities, interoperable payment systems, government data exchange platforms and digital credentials.
The Gates Foundation describes DPI itself as an infrastructure that connects people, data, and money and can serve as digital “rails” of an entire economic system.
This does not automatically mean that tomorrow every payment will be programmed or restricted.
But the possibility arises.
A digital payment system could be technically linked to identity data, government claims or authorizations. Payments could theoretically be conditional, limited in time or only allowed for certain purposes. This is precisely why the question of control, data protection and political power is crucial.
What is being built today as a convenient digital infrastructure could also form the basis for much more detailed control of financial and social processes tomorrow.
The proponents therefore repeatedly emphasize protective mechanisms, data protection and public control. UNDP explicitly speaks of a “secure, fair and interoperable” infrastructure.
But precisely because these systems could handle an increasingly large part of daily life in the future, the promise of security is not enough.
What happens when digital identity, money and personal data are no longer separate systems at some point, but components of a single state-controlled infrastructure?
In any case, 50-in-5 shows that it is precisely this technical merger that is being driven forward at high speed worldwide.
Sources:
- 50-in-5 – official definition and target of 50 countries by 2028 50-in-5
- UNDP to Digital Public Infrastructure UNDP
- Gates Foundation on digital ID, payments and data exchange gatesfoundation.org
- Pakistan as an example of the technical integration of these systems 50-in-5
