Digital Self‑determination in a Sovereign State
In an era of global digital giants and borderless data flows, small nations and communities are seeking a new kind of independence: digital sovereignty anchored in digital self‑determination - practical, culturally grounded ways for people and institutions to steward their own data and digital tools.
Sovereignty is not merely about state power. In this context digital sovereignty and digital self‑determination together describe the complementary capacities of institutions and communities (sovereignty) and individuals/peoples (self‑determination) to decide how data is accessed, governed, and reused in line with local norms and rights.
The emphasis here is cultural —
How people govern technology together and how those practices travel with data - regardless of where people live or their data resides.
One focused experiment comes from Liechtenstein: a joint development by our Liechtenstein-resident company IXO, and digihub.li - which is this nation state's European Digital Innovation Hub, organised as a Liechtenstein Venture Cooperative. The aim is to prototype a community‑governed data and services layer that demonstrates how Web3 and AI can support local resilience while keeping decision-rights close to those affected. Digihub.li’s EDIH status is co‑funded under the EU’s Digital Europe Programme together with national co‑funding; the experiment itself does not constitute endorsement by public authorities, but demonstrates a citizen-driven local initiative.
Whilst public administrations continue to adopt mainstream cloud productivity suites such as Microsoft 365, the pragmatic citizens' choice highlights the real‑world trade‑offs between hyperscaler convenience and local control - precisely what our initiative seeks to explore with complementary, community-governed approaches.
What are digital sovereignty and digital self‑determination?
Digital sovereignty concerns institutional and collective control over critical digital infrastructure, data, and services in line with local law and values.
Digital self‑determination complements this by centring individual and community agency over how our data is accessed, used, and reused.
Framing them together clarifies that sovereignty without self‑determination can slide into centralised control, while self‑determination without sovereignty can remain toothless.
Practically, the pairing matters because borders blur online while obligations rise. Communities run essential workloads on foreign clouds; individuals are profiled across platforms. A culture‑first approach asks: how do local rules, cooperative institutions, and user agency travel with data - no matter where it is stored?
Why it matters now
Ensuring meaningful sovereignty with self‑determination is now foundational for resilience, innovation, and trust. The policy backdrop in Liechtenstein includes the Token and Trustworthy Technology Service Provider Act (TVTG), which provides legal clarity for tokenised assets and trustworthy‑technology services - one element of an enabling environment for experiments like this. It is especially relevant with the draft EU regulatory framework for artificial intelligence, and the initiative is at the forefront of exploring how agentic AI services could be regulated as Trustworthy Technologies under this new paradigm.
Web3 + AI for local resilience: inside the digihub.li–IXO experiment
Within this context, digihub.li and IXO are co‑developing and testing components of a community‑governed data and services stack. Our collaboration brings together complementary roles where IXO contributes digital infrastructure and AI tooling, whilst digihub.li convenes local stakeholders and learning environments to test cooperative governance, data stewardship, and service co‑creation.
Our focus is on patterns others can adopt, not on a single monolithic platform.
How might this enhance local resilience and adaptation? Consider shocks like pandemics or energy disruptions. The experiment explores whether community‑governed data commons, smart contracts, and transparent rules of engagement can coordinate faster responses - while maintaining local agency over data and decisions.
Illustrative scenarios
Sustainable finance and climate action
Liechtenstein’s innovation hub and IXO are exploring sustainability‑aligned finance and digital assets, such as a youth‑focused green bond which is being promoted by UNICEF and the Liechtenstein Bankers’ Association.
Community energy cooperatives
A village co‑op could tokenise shares in rooftop solar and storage, stream device telemetry to a ledger, and settle usage via smart contracts under member‑voted rules - retaining local control while interconnecting with national systems.
Agriculture and food security
Farmer‑led data spaces could pool sensor and practice data under shared governance, with transparent models predicting risks and rewarding regenerative practices - keeping data rights with producers and their co‑op.
Governance and civic participation
Digital co‑ops can augment existing municipal engagement with verifiable consultations or participatory budgeting, while protecting personal data through community‑approved rules. This complements, not replaces, constitutional processes.
Digital cooperatives
Liechtenstein provides a distinctive legal vehicle, the Liechtenstein Venture Cooperative (LVC), which fits digitally networked, multi‑stakeholder initiatives. digihub.li itself is organised as an LVC, and the model aligns naturally with DAO‑like governance while retaining real‑world legal status.
What increases the odds of useful outcomes—and what could go wrong
Regulatory clarity
TVTG provides a clear framework for token‑based services and trustworthy technology, reducing legal ambiguity for pilots. Clarity, however, does not equate to endorsement; projects must still demonstrate public value and compliance.
Small‑scale iteration
With ~39,000 residents, Liechtenstein’s scale enables quicker feedback loops across sectors. The risk is insularity; the mitigation is designing for interoperability so patterns travel.
Cross‑sector convening
The EDIH mission is to convene SMEs and public‑interest actors to test adoption of AI, cybersecurity, and HPC. The opportunity is shared learning; the risk is initiative fatigue. Success requires clear problem framing and measurable outcomes.
Reputation and agility
The country’s track record in finance and legal innovation attracts attention; agility helps adapt rules. But reputational capital cuts both ways - over‑promising invites scepticism. Conservative claims and published evidence help.
Measurable impact
Verifiable metrics and open methods build trust. Where models are uncertain, uncertainty should be published. This is especially important when experiments run alongside mainstream cloud adoption, so stakeholders can assess complementarity rather than false dichotomies.
Charting a culturally sovereign digital future
The question is not “public cloud or sovereignty,” but:
how do we encode local agency, cooperative governance, and rights‑preserving data practices across whatever infrastructure we use?
The digihub.li–IXO experiment treats sovereignty and self‑determination as lived practice - measured, iterated, and open to scrutiny. That cultural stance, more than any single stack, is what scales.