Mirela Ciobanu, Lead Editor at The Paypers, continues her coverage of key takeaways from EIC 2025 in Berlin—this time spotlighting the progress made by European countries on the European Digital Identity Wallet.
If you missed the first instalment of our EIC highlights, you can catch up here.
John Peart from the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology presented the UK’s progress toward a trustworthy, scalable digital identity ecosystem. The government has rolled out GOV.UK One Login for public services and is piloting a GOV.UK Wallet to store digital credentials like mobile driving licences and veterans’ cards.
According to the 2024 Digital Identity and Attributes – De Minimis Assessment, widespread digital ID use could unlock GBP 701 million in annual economic benefits. Yet, trust remains the biggest barrier to adoption.
To overcome this, Peart outlined four essential pillars for trust:
Consistent standards - all digital ID products must meet the same high standards and be interoperable.
Assurance that rules are followed - a clear process is needed to verify compliance with those rules.
Clarity for users - businesses shouldn’t need to decipher complex rules—they should know at a glance which services are trustworthy.
Government-backed data access - the private sector must be able to verify identities using official data—with user consent and under a regulated framework.
Source: Slide from John Peart's presentation at EIC 2025
The UK has been laying this foundation over the past four years. It introduced the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework, a technology-agnostic set of standards, along with Supplementary Codes tailored to regulated sectors like right to work, right to rent, and criminal record checks.
To ensure services comply, the government created a certification process, now used by 57 live digital ID services. A public register of certified services is available on GOV.UK and will soon include an API and a government-issued trust mark for certified providers.
The Data Use and Access Bill, nearing passage in Parliament, authorises certified providers to access government-held data (with user permission). These developments are overseen by the new Office for Digital Identities and Attributes, ensuring strong governance.
On cross-border cooperation, Peart noted the UK sees alignment with global partners—including the EU—but is prioritising the creation of a secure, inclusive, and privacy-respecting domestic ecosystem first. International interoperability will follow once these foundations are firmly in place.
Germany launched its EU Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW) project in 2023 under the leadership of Dr. Torsten Lodderstedt and the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation. With support from major institutions like the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Bundesdruckerei, Fraunhofer ISEC, and PwC, the project has grown into Germany’s national rollout strategy for a digital identity wallet. All project developments are published as open code.
Source: Slide from Dr. Torsten Lodderstedt's presentation at EIC 2025
Germany has adopted a hybrid strategy: it is building a government-provided wallet while also enabling alternative wallet providers to enter the market. This dual approach helps manage risk, ensures timely delivery by 2026, and promotes a level playing field for private-sector innovation. The model draws inspiration from US state-level mobile driver's license initiatives, particularly California’s open, standards-based approach.
Dr. Lodderstedt highlighted that the EUDI Wallet is not just a chip—it’s a complex ecosystem involving mobile apps, back-end systems, and hardware security modules. This complexity makes certification a central issue. By developing its own wallet and working closely with BSI, Germany ensures that the certification process aligns with its strict privacy, security, and functional standards.
He made a crucial distinction between certification (technical compliance) and recognition (political approval to access German personal identity data, or PID). While a wallet may be certified in another EU country, it must be formally recognised in Germany to gain access to sensitive citizen data. This ensures national digital sovereignty while empowering user-level sovereignty—giving citizens clear control over who accesses their data.
Every relying party must be registered and declare their intended data use, which is publicly visible. This transparency allows civil society to monitor potential misuse or over-identification and hold actors accountable. Germany’s system includes privacy-enhancing technologies to ensure unlinkability and data minimisation—addressing concerns about over-sharing and surveillance.
If users feel their data rights are violated, they have clear channels to file complaints, reinforcing ecosystem hygiene and trust. Ultimately, Germany’s government wallet will serve as a reference blueprint, but the strategy encourages competition to deliver the best possible wallets in terms of user experience, functionality, and security.
As Dr. Lodderstedt concluded: ‘We want to empower users to make informed decisions with their wallet.’
Austria has over two decades of experience in digital identification. According to Herbert Leitold, Director at A-SIT, Austria’s journey began with various token-based systems, but only mobile eID saw widespread adoption. Today, 50% of citizens use active eIDs, alongside 700,000+ mobile driving licences and 300,000+ smartphone-based identity documents used for proximity use cases like ID presentation and age verification.
Source: Slide from Herbert Leitold's presentation at EIC 2025
Austria’s current system is built on two pillars:
A centralised online eID system, where authentication is handled by a remote Hardware Security Module (HSM), triggered by user devices (smartphones, smart cards, or FIDO tokens).
A decentralised proximity app, where documents like driving licences are stored directly on the smartphone.
Both systems rely on freshly curated attributes from authentic sources (e.g., the population register) via a federated register access layer. Importantly, the eID system is government-issued, voluntary, and free of charge—for both citizens and relying parties, across public and private sectors.
Looking ahead to the EU Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW), Austria aims for a seamless migration rather than parallel systems. Given the high penetration of mobile eIDs and existing decentralised infrastructure, Herbert emphasised adapting current systems to meet EUDIW standards by end of 2026.
Key strategies include:
Reusing the remote HSM for high-assurance online authentication under the new eIDAS 2.0 rules.
Updating legacy protocols like SAML to support verifiable credentials and EUDI architecture requirements.
Adopting a mobile-first approach, as most users interact via mobile apps rather than browsers, which may phase out over time.
Importantly, uptake of the EUDI wallet cannot be assumed; both citizens and service providers must clearly see the value in using it. This will require a broad offering of services, particularly from the private sector, to drive regular usage and build familiarity. Interoperability and technical reliability are essential—without them, the system risks failure. Among the key challenges is identity matching: the wallet is expected to support both privacy-oriented use cases, such as social networks, and high-assurance services like e-government and KYC, which require strong, unique identification. Unlike the first eIDAS framework, the EUDI wallet does not rely on a mandatory persistent identifier, making exact identity resolution more complex. Another critical issue is wallet certification, which will require a harmonised and credible security baseline across Europe.
Ultimately, Herbert concluded that Austria’s experience and existing user base offer a solid foundation, and the path to EUDI should focus on evolving current systems, not reinventing them—treating the transition as an engineering challenge while preserving the familiar user experience.
Alexander G. Bielowski, Lead Architect of the Dutch EUDI Programme at the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations, shared insights into the Netherlands’ dual approach to the EU Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW) during a panel discussion with German and Swiss representatives. The country is simultaneously developing a government-issued wallet while preparing the ground for an open ecosystem that will support commercial wallet providers.
The government wallet serves as both a learning project and a strategic step. It allows Dutch officials to explore the technical and regulatory complexities of digital identity, and to engage effectively with the European Commission and other member states. In parallel, the Netherlands is actively engaging with potential private-sector wallet providers through a regular advisory board. These ongoing discussions help shape the future framework for a mixed ecosystem.
To support this collaboration, the ministry also hosts public meetups on specific topics relevant to the digital identity landscape. An upcoming session in mid-May, for example, will focus on integrating authentic data sources, helping stakeholders understand their role and how they can contribute to the emerging ecosystem.
Andreas Frey Sang, Product Strategy Officer at Switzerland’s Federal Office of Justice, outlined the country’s approach to the EU Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW), which aligns closely with the Netherlands’ collaborative strategy. Switzerland organises monthly participation meetings to update stakeholders on progress within the ecosystem, fostering transparency and engagement with civil society and potential integrators. These sessions provide insights into the government's infrastructure and technical developments, offering test beds and open products for public scrutiny.
While Switzerland is not bound to follow the EIDAS regulation strictly, due to its own regulatory framework, the government prioritizes openness, transparency, and collaboration, with a focus on open-source principles. This approach is crucial to the success of the digital identity ecosystem, Andreas explained.
A unique challenge in Switzerland is the system of direct democracy, where acts passed by parliament can be subjected to a popular vote if they garner enough signatures. This system has created uncertainty around the timing of potential votes on digital identity legislation, as the deadline for collecting signatures recently passed, and the results are pending. However, this democratic process also provides an opportunity for broad public engagement, as a votation booklet detailing the act is sent to every household, helping to inform the public about the digital identity project.
Overall, the Swiss perspective underscores the importance of collaboration across multiple levels—legal, technical, and bilateral—between member states and companies. Andreas concluded that only through multilateral collaboration can truly interoperable solutions for digital identity be achieved.
The development of the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW) across various countries reveals a shared ambition to empower citizens with secure, privacy-preserving digital identities—yet each country is charting a distinct path shaped by its legal frameworks, technical heritage, and political culture.
What emerges from these national strategies is a mosaic of innovation: countries balancing central control with decentralisation, public provision with private participation, and high-level policy with technical implementation. Yet across these differences, there is strong consensus on the importance of collaboration, user trust, privacy, and interoperability.
The path to a unified European digital identity may not be linear—but the direction is clearly cooperative.
About Mirela Ciobanu
Mirela Ciobanu is Lead Editor at The Paypers, specialising in the Banking and Fintech domain. With a keen eye for industry trends, she is constantly on the lookout for the latest developments in digital assets, regtech, payment innovation, and fraud prevention. Mirela is particularly passionate about crypto, blockchain, DeFi, and fincrime investigations, and is a strong advocate for online data privacy and protection. As a skilled writer, Mirela strives to deliver accurate and informative insights to her readers, always in pursuit of the most compelling version of the truth. Connect with Mirela on LinkedIn or reach out via email at mirelac@thepaypers.com.
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