The European Digital Identity Wallet: A Step Towards a More Secure and Connected Europe

Written by the iGrant.io team: Lotta Lundin, George Padayatti, Lal Chandran and David Goodman.

Are you curious about digital wallets? If so, read on!

The European Commission (EC) recently published the ‘European Digital Identity Wallet Architecture and Reference Framework (ARF)’ [1], which sets out the key objectives and specifications that will form the basis of several EC-funded large-scale pilots. As a technology partner in the European Wallet Consortium (EWC) led by the Swedish and Finnish governments, iGrant.io is excited to share our take on using digital wallets for natural persons (or citizens) as well as for organisations.

The European Union (EU) has taken a significant step in securing the digital identities of its citizens (personal identities or PIDs) with the proposed revised eIDAS regulation that will require all EU Member States to make a digital identity wallet available to every European citizen who wants one. Digital wallets will give citizens control over their data used online. In addition, a tried and tested combination of products and trust services will enable users to request, obtain and securely store information about themselves, giving them access to online services through data presentation and electronic signatures.

The digital wallet will enable patients to easily access their health data, medical histories and e-prescriptions in their own country and cross-border. This will improve healthcare services and lead to better patient outcomes. The ARF’s recommendations are a welcome framework that will be included in iGrant.io’s recent engagement in the healthcare-related CRANE project [2].

The digital wallet will also be a game-changer in education and professional qualifications as a repository for digital educational credentials, enabling students to present digital diploma attestations, especially in a cross-border in a verifiable, trusted and consumable format to educational or training institutions as well as prospective employers. E.g. iGrant.io wallets support European Blockchain Service Infrastructure (EBSI) as a trust anchor [3] towards student ID, diploma certificates, ESSPASS (Labour card) etc.

In the finance sector, the digital wallet will provide secure access to online financial services and transactions, ensuring users’ financial data is protected from unauthorised access and fraud.

In all the above use cases, organisational wallets and organisational identities (ODI) are vital in establishing efficient governance for any data space where the wallets may be used to grant permission for legitimate organisations to join the data ecosystem. They provide a secure and convenient way to store and manage digital representations of organisational identities such as business registry credentials, incorporation documents, authorised signatories and tax identification numbers. Furthermore, it can be used to verify the identities and credentials of both organisations and employees, making it easier to perform background checks and ensure the authenticity and integrity of organisational information. With the increased need for secure and efficient management of organisational identities, digital wallets are becoming popular for businesses of all sizes. E.g. Bolagsverket (Swedish Companies Registration Office) recently trialled providing proof of business [4] to companies and managing organisational credentials for company registry data, tax data etc.

In conclusion, the proposed European digital wallet technology, based on common standards and practices, is a significant step towards making Europe more secure and connected and making digital interactions easier and more efficient for organisations and citizens.

Tell us what verifiable credentials you want in your digital wallet, and we will do what we can to make them happen!

At iGrant.io, we are truly excited about the possibilities and opportunities the EUDI Wallet will soon bring. To inspire you, here is an example video of how it works.

References:

[1] The European Digital Identity Wallet Architecture and Reference Framework, Available at: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/european-digital-identity-wallet-architecture-and-reference-framework

[2] CRANE Project news: https://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/igrantio/pressreleases/the-swedish-based-consortium-marks-its-win-for-crane-to-establish-a-european-health-data-space-based-on-digital-wallets-3233656

[3] Try out iGrant.io wallet support to EBSI: https://igrant.io/ebsi.html

[4] Bolagsverket (Swedish Companies Registration Office) Proof-Of-Business (PoB) trial project providing cross-border organisational data exchange:: https://wallet.proofofbusiness.se/