OpenWallet Foundation is a collaborative effort that aims to enable trust in the digital future and is looking to do so by developing open-source software to support interoperability for an extensive range of wallet use cases, such as making payments, proving identity, and storing validated credentials like employment, education, financial standing, and entitlements.
Based on the information provided in the press release, the OWF is not set to publish a wallet, provide credentials, or create new standards, but aims to have its open-source software become the core leveraged by other organisations and companies to develop their own digital wallets. The wallets are set to seek feature parity with available wallets, as well as interoperability with cross-border projects of the likes of the EU’s Digital Identity Wallet.
Daniel Goldscheider, Founder of the OpenWallet Foundation advised that wallets are seen as critical infrastructure for payments, identity, and secure access alike, and they believe open source driven by this collaboration to be a ‘great’ model for infrastructure that is required in digital societies and benefits everyone. Having open source as the basis of wallets, as it is with web browsers, enables anyone to build a digital wallet that works with others and provides consumers with the freedom to maintain their identity and verifiable credentials and share relevant data whenever, wherever and with whomever they choose.
For ecommerce and point-of-sale retail, digital wallets are the most prevalent payment method throughout the globe, with the digital wallet transactions value in 2021 having reached USD 15.9 trillion.
Hundreds of digital wallets are available but are cumbered with a host of problems like vendor lock-in, lack of interoperability, problematic security, and limited capabilities.
New wallets are underway, but if not synced, each country and organisation issuing credentials could become a ‘walled garden’, with IDs and wallets from elsewhere not functioning and disrupting travel, international students, and mobile workforces.
Multiple wallets are set to be present in the future, which highlights the need for a ‘world-class’ wallet engine to ensure built-in interoperability.
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