Poland is leading the pack on eIDs - here’s what Europe can learn

Jarek Sygitowicz, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Authologic, explores the key lessons Europe can draw from Poland’s successful rollout of electronic IDs (eIDs).

It’s an interesting moment for electronic IDs (eIDs) and digital verification. The technology is by no means new, nor are its use cases obscure. Adoption, however, remains uneven from country to country, highly prioritised by some countries and half-ignored by others.

Of the European countries most enthusiastic about eIDs, Poland sits at the head of the pack. Four in five Poles already use digital IDs, typically accessed through a mobile wallet app called mObywatel. They use them not only for standard ID verification but also to view their driving record, check air quality, and find polling stations. Poland’s success is part of a larger eID trend in Europe that extends from Portugal and France to the Baltics. For the last several years, Belgium has issued eIDs to all citizens above the age of 12. Italy’s SPID jumped from 23 million users in 2021 to 36.4 million users (equivalent to roughly 73% of the adult population) in 2023. 5.5 million Danes above age 15 have used the MitID to make 89 million monthly transactions. The tide has turned.

Other countries have nevertheless proven hesitant. Last December, the Swiss government passed a measure to start rolling out eIDs and began testing an eID program and digital wallet called Swiyu in late March. By early May, more than 55,000 Swiss citizens had signed a petition against the measure, citing privacy concerns. This was enough to force a referendum. Even if the law passed in December survives the referendum, it won’t come into effect before 2026 at the earliest.

In the middle of this swirl of different approaches is the EU-wide mandate requiring all member states to introduce some form of digital identity by the end of 2026. The bloc has thrown its weight behind eIDs and established a hard deadline for adoption. To assist with this process, the European Commission developed the EU Digital Identity Toolbox with a host of specifications surrounding uniform implementation. Pilot programs overseen by the Commission are testing wallets’ usability in various scenarios, from opening bank accounts to facilitating online payments securely.

An interoperable tool for a multinational bloc

Even countries taking very different approaches to eIDs are united in needing to meet the EU’s deadline. They’re also alike in needing to create eIDs that are fundamentally useful to their citizens, and able to do far more than what existing analog IDs are capable of—sign contracts, access tax services, and buy age-restricted items like cigarettes from digital marketplaces. There needs to be some degree of collaboration between countries. In a European context, the goal is that someone from Portugal could sign a contract in Ireland, access tax services in France, or buy cigarettes from an Italian digital marketplace using a digital ID.

To some extent, eIDs are already designed to be interoperable, but they still must be implemented in a way that enables true interoperability with other eID solutions and KYC processes. This is especially critical in the EU, as a multinational bloc that not only encourages but depends on frictionless movement among states. Thanks to their universal recognition capabilities, eIDs can streamline people’s ability to access tax and banking services outside of their home country, and even improve driving license legibility at traffic stops. But this relies on a coordinated approach from countries throughout the EU, building on the success of countries—like Poland—who have implemented early and replicating this to create reliable interoperability between eIDs across the bloc. 

Poland’s eID playbook

Poland’s demonstrable domestic success speaks for itself. More than 8 million people in Poland already use the government-issued digital ID held inside mObywatel. Another 22 million (and 98% of electronic banking users) use an alternative, bank-issued eID called mojeID. Offices, banks, post offices, and polling stations across Poland all accept these eIDs as valid forms of identification. Poland has taken a holistic approach to identity too, making it possible to integrate mobile driving licenses, student and pensioner cards, IBAN numbers, and even educational and professional qualifications onto mObywatel. 

Beyond simply verifying identity, however, the success of mObywatel and Poland’s eIDs scheme is a host of relevant added features. The ability to check air quality proved popular with users, and in an interview with The Guardian earlier this year, Rafał Sionkowski, one government official working on the app, floated the idea of introducing an in-app tool that would let users notify auto insurers of a collision.

The Polish government has worked with regulated companies and fintechs to ensure that they’re able to accept eIDs. Communication about eIDs with enterprises and citizens has been transparent and considered. Instead of trying to foist eIDs on everyone all at once, Poland prioritised gradual rollouts, built trust, and continually demonstrated and expanded eID efficacy. This has had the desired effect—not just widespread adoption, but sustained public use and responsive private innovation.

Poland’s playbook, in other words, is to make comprehensive eIDs legible and widely accepted, and then to support the project by creating a secure eID app that is continually updated with useful features that go well beyond what was ever possible with an analog ID.

More than just a digital ID 

It would be limited to only focus on government- and finance-related use cases with eID. Polish businesses have taken full advantage of the ever-expanding list of use cases eIDs have created. In particular, by harnessing the full privacy benefits of peer-to-peer knowledge transfer baked into eID functionality, businesses are transforming safeguarding methods.

Take the women’s safety app HomeGirl, which was created in Poland. Designed to help young women get home from nights out safely, HomeGirl enables women to place secure voice calls and text with other users, report dangerous places, and, if needed, activate an SOS function. In order to work, the app depends on a female-only network of users connected through the app. To verify users’ identities and gender without compromising user privacy, HomeGirl’s developers turned to e-IDs. The enhanced privacy and security eIDs provide have enabled them to build a vital safety tool that simply wouldn’t be possible without them—just one example of which Poland’s intelligent eID integration has given Polish companies a leg up.

Polish successes should be bloc-wide takeaways

The deadline imposed by the EU is approaching, and despite the Commission’s supporting measures, each country must take the initiative for issuing and onboarding their citizens. The Polish example is worth following: a holistic approach that goes beyond just basic identifying info to offer a broad range of useful in-app features and built-in privacy.

About author

Jarek Sygitowicz is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Authologic, the full-stack global e-ID hub for industries reliant on KYC and AML processes. Prior to this, he co-founded ZenCard, which allowed businesses to offer loyalty and rewards programs to customers using their existing payment cards. The company was acquired in 2017 by PKO BP, one of the largest banks in Poland. 

 

 

About Authologic

Authologic is the global e-ID hub helping businesses verify identities using government-issued digital IDs and identity wallets, alongside existing KYC methods. Founded in 2020 by banking and payment veterans Jarek Sygitowicz, Krysztof Klimczak, and Marek Rogozinski, Authologic is used over 150,000 times per day. Backed by OpenOcean, Y Combinator, and Peak Capital, the company is headquartered in London, with offices in Warsaw and San Francisco.