Mountains, Drones, and the Future: Bhutan’s DHI InnoTech Partners with Mysten Labs on Offline Blockchain Project

Main takeaways

• Bhutan’s Department of Innovation and Technology (InnoTech), under Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), the commercial arm of the Royal Government of Bhutan, and Mysten Labs have launched a new partnership to explore how verifiable digital systems can operate in extreme, low-connectivity environments. 
• The initiative centers on a breakthrough proof-of-concept called ByteCrane, a system that enables Internet of Things (IoT) devices to transmit secure, tamper-proof data to the Sui blockchain, even without internet access.
• In late fall, a team of engineers from Mysten Labs traveled to Bhutan to test the system in a geographically isolated and infrastructure-limited region.

Overview

Today, the Department of Innovation and Technology (InnoTech), under Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), the commercial arm and trusted steward of the Royal Government of Bhutan, and Mysten Labs team up to build ByteCrane, a breakthrough proof-of-concept that allows Internet of Things (IoT) devices to interact with the Sui blockchain even in environments without internet access. 

This is especially significant for the Kingdom of Bhutan, located in the Himalayas and known for its vast forested landscapes, where providing reliable internet connectivity across varied terrain can be complex. Despite these difficulties, Bhutan’s government has embraced the power of blockchain, with major holdings in BTC and a national identity system running on blockchain.

Field Testing ByteCrane in Bhutan

In late fall, a team of Sui and Mysten Labs engineers visited Bhutan to test ByteCrane on the ground. The fieldwork pushed past the usual whitepapers and lab conditions, offering a rare look at what frontier engineering really requires when theory meets terrain. It shows the power and resilience of Sui’s unique technical architecture in even the toughest conditions, including off-grid or emergency environments. As Mysten Labs’ Chief Cryptographer Kostas Chalkias wrote following his time in Bhutan, “At its core, our purpose in Bhutan was to answer a fundamental question: can a blockchain remain useful when the network disappears?”

The team had to rethink everything once on the ground, coming up with a solution of lighter equipment, shorter messages, and new relay paths. The result is ByteCrane. It allows a soil sensor reading in a remote valley to be picked up by one relay, transported across a ridge, handed off again, and eventually reach a gateway where internet access exists. Once it arrives, the message is verified and published on the Sui blockchain exactly as if it had been sent online. 

From Offline Sensor to Onchain Record

As Kostas notes, this turns a remote sensor reading into a verifiable record, the kind of proof that commodity and resource markets depend on. The principle is to sign offline, carry the message physically, and then verify onchain.

To achieve this, ByteCrane uses ultra-low-power wireless signals such as LoRa radio, HAM, SMS, and even acoustic transmissions to move data through tough terrain. When radio waves aren’t enough, it employs drones as physical “cranes,” picking up a signed message on one side of a ridge, carrying it over, and retransmitting it so the next relay can receive it. 

This can repeat itself through several hops until a gateway with internet access receives the data and forwards it to Sui validators. In effect, the drone became a mechanical extension of the network. These drones only carry a small ESP32 (“microSui”) transmitter chip, ensuring that the drones are lightweight, flexible, and affordable. 

How ByteCrane Works

The on-the-ground sequence looks like this:

• The drone gets the info it needs from the Sui network.
• It flies up to create a line-of-sight with out-of-range sensors.
• Sensors take readings and sign them offline using microSui.
• The drone collects the data and brings it back into LoRaWAN range.
• The gateway forwards it to servers, which publish it to the Sui blockchain.
• Anyone, anywhere in the world can verify the data’s authenticity.

In the PoC, a streamlined double-LoRa hop and an ESP32 acting as a temporary gateway were used to demonstrate the flow.

DHI InnoTech and Sui will soon publish a joint paper on ByteCrane, highlighting the system’s potential and opening the door for deeper future collaboration.

ByteCrane shows what’s possible when frontier tech meets real-world constraints: reliable blockchain participation, even where the internet can’t reach.