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Explainer

Oskar van Deventer, a rockstar from TNO, presents:

ways to build an SSI ecosystem and architecture together that is interoperable and technologically mature fit for society and funding opportunities for SSI projects through grants.

This is often achieved with ID cards or passports that we have in our possession with a photo to prove that we are the person this card belongs to, and therefore the person that ID number refers to. In digital identity terms, PKI takes the place of ID cards and offers public and private key pairs.

  1. Hyperledger Indy and Aries technology stack
    4. ‘Network of networks’ which has been a key concept at the Sovrin Foundation
    5. The topic is meant to be a conversation as an outline based on material information which can be shared publicly
    6. EBSI is one of the funded projects from the EU
    7. ESSIF is one of the projects in this portfolio - have issued a request for proposal for consulting (not in the network of networks topic but other areas)
    8. Findy (Finland) - yet to go live. Has public and private partners.
    9. Projects underway at Spain and other member nations in EU
    10. Substantial funding behind Indy based technology stack deployments are being seen
    11. Germany has 3 major streams active in the identity space

ESSIF

  • Commerc.io srl has concluded the project with Essif on anti-money laundering eKYC

    [ComKYC] is a protocol on the Commercio Network blockchain that allows you to issue a KYC verifiable credential after performing a simple set of payments through a bank or any regulated money institution. We piggy back on banks kyc requirements [...] it's a verifiable credential that you can share with anyone who trusts the bank to which this VC is anchored. We have created the first portable derivative key kyc credential protocol that will eliminate the endless passport upload for users, reduce customer dropouts for companies, and reduce time and cost for onboarding new customers

eSSIF-Lab

EBSI

first time since the launch of the Early Adopters Programme in 2021, we are ready to showcase, in real-time and with real data, the outcomes of the EBSI multi-university pilot.

The European Blockchain Services Infrastructure aims to deliver EU-wide cross-border digital public services using blockchain technology. The EBSI will materialize as a network of distributed nodes across Europe (the blockchain), leveraging an increasing number of applications focused on specific use cases.

Creating EBSI's Verifiable Credentials Profile containing all the EBSI specifications.

In this document, you can learn how to onboard and accredit the following legal entities

  • EBSI Onboarding Service (EOS)
  • Trusted Accreditation Organisation (TAO)
  • Trusted Issuer (TI)

Governmental entities act as important intermediaries for many transactions occurring in today´s society.

In the era of misinformation, digital fraud has become a challenge that is essential to address.

Governments and the societies they serve need technology capable of verifying the authenticity of the information they handle.

As we build the European regulatory framework, in the transfer from paper to digital, a key question arises: how to share official documents, called ‘evidences’ or ‘credentials’ in a way that can be trusted?

We are glad to be among the first few along with @ValidatedID @danube @GATACA_ID @walt_id @DXCTechnology @CIMEA_Naric @identyum @ThalesDigiSec @posteitaliane

#1 EBSI combines W3C standards, Verifiable Credentials and DIDs, with blockchain technology for the purpose of information sharing between Citizens and Governments (C2G) or Businesses (C2B)
#2 Self-Sovereign Information Sharing should help verification, not control
#3 EBSI uses blockchain where it makes sense: to support the verification of Verifiable Crede
#4 EBSI contributes to an open market of SSI digital technologies and services
#5 EBSI successfully piloted Self-Sovereign Information Sharing in the education domain

EBSI is a blockchain network of distributed nodes across Europe to support important applications. [...] Below you will find a series of publications that will walk you through the technologies that make it possible for Public Administrations and Businesses to easily verify and trust information received directly from Citizens (or Businesses). There are PDFs of each one:

- Verifiable Credentials Explained
- Verifiable Credentials in Action
- Decentralized Identifiers (DID) Methods
- Digital Identity
- Issuers Trust Model
- OpenID Connect for VCs
- Digital Wallet

After a tough competition among overall excellent proposals, eSSIF-LAB selected the 4 most promising proposals out of 42 submitted applications. 161 applications were started altogether, from 22 different countries. This booklet gives an overview of the 4 Open Calls subgrantee projects started within the infrastructure-oriented and the business-oriented track of eSSIF-Lab.

EBSI: Innovation that respects our privacy is a joint effort

O’Neill’s Weapons of Math destruction, Zuboff’s Surveillance Capitalism, and Véliz’ recent Privacy is Power: these may have made it onto your summer reading list. And for good reason: wherever there is new technology, there is also concern for the respect of our European values.

The web is increasingly more distributed, and with it, a new pattern of information sharing is emerging: Self Sovereign Information sharing, where citizens stay in control of their information by choosing what and when to disclose it, and to whom EBSI enables self-sovereign Citizen-to-Government (C2G) and C2B (Citizen-to-Business) privacy-preserving information sharing.

Below you will find a series of publications that will walk you through the technologies that make it possible for Public Administrations and Businesses to easily verify and trust information received directly from Citizens (or Businesses).

In 2018, all European member states, together with Norway and Lichtenstein, signed a declaration stating the joint ambition to take advantage of blockchain technology. These 29 countries founded the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP), and within this partnership, they decided to build the so-called European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI).

We at Validated ID have been betting on EBSI since the beginning. We started working to become conformant wallet providers since the very first version of Wallet Conformance Tests (WCT) was published. The process of preparing our solution to become conformant has allowed us to appreciate how remarkable EBSI's work has been.

On December 14th, Joao Rodrigues, Head of sector (Digital) Building Blocks at @European Commission participated in an #ebcTALKS of the European Blockchain Convention about "Where do we stand on Self-Sovereign Identity"?

In 2021 the European Commission announced the European digital identity wallet. This article explains the basic concepts, highlights the significance of this development and provides an overview of the status quo.

The Decision to make EBSI software available for licencing under the European Union Public Licence is an example of how the European Commission is not only using, but also contributing to the open-source community and thereby growing the ecosystem around EBSI.

In 2021, 22 projects were selected to become part of our incubator programme to help tap into the potential of the EBSI infrastructure. Each project's private and public sector partners was given early access to the pre-production environment of EBSI, and was invited to develop their own pilot project to address a specific business or government use case involving the exchange of verifiable credentials.

With the help with the EBSI team, Early Adopters can identify how to connect their systems, be part of a community and collaborate with other Early Adopters. This will help us improve EBSI's services and ensure it meets the needs of Europe's businesses and public administrations, within and across borders.

On September 15, 2021, I moderated a panel with representatives from the United States Government, the Canadian Government, and the European Commission. Below is an edited excerpt from the panel

An incubator to help Early Adopters and their partners imagine, build and launch their EBSI pilot project(s)

Policy

What are the Pros and Cons? - ISSE 2020 Webinar 3 (Tim Bouma says to watch this)

we dive into what’s happening within the Digital ID landscape within Europe. Sebastian Manhart is very well positioned between policy and technology in the European Union. In this episode of SSI Orbit, he shares his experiences and future projections.

  1. Invest in a public/private partnership to co-develop a self-sovereign identity solution for Europe.

The legal instrument aims to provide, for cross-border use: – access to highly secure and trustworthy electronic identity solutions, – that public and private services can rely on trusted and secure digital identity solutions, – that natural and legal persons are empowered to use digital identity solutions, – that these solutions are linked to a variety of attributes and allow for the targeted sharing of identity data limited to the needs of the specific service requested, – acceptance of qualified trust services in the EU and equal conditions for their provision.

With the Digital Services Act (DSA), the European Union is to adopt landmark legislation that will create a framework to regulate online platforms around the world. The DSA will have an impact on the free expression of opinions online, our choices as consumers, the right to privacy and the basic mechanisms of the global Internet.

  • MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) whose scope covers cryptocurrencies, utility tokens and stablecoins ;
  • the Pilot Regime Regulation for DLT Market Infrastructures (PRR) project. With these two texts, the Commission’s goal is to regulate crypto-asset players and not the assets as such.

Data Governance Act

Is the EU discussion about data portability missing a key point?

In its discussion of data portability the EU rightly recognises the economic importance of this issue, stressing that “market imbalances arising from the concentration of data restricts competition, increases market entry barriers and diminishes wider data access and use.”

it is likely that many dApp developers now need an identity solution that preserves privacy but ensures compliance – which is exactly the solution that we are building at SelfKey. EU DATA GOVERNANCE ACT MEETS TOIP FRAMEWORK TOIP

The DGA defines an “intermediary” that facilitates processing and sharing of data for individuals and organizations to “…increase trust in data intermediation services and foster data altruism across the EU”. In the MyData framework for user-controlled data sharing, intermediaries are called MyData Operators and there is a certification program in place.

One of MyDex CIC’s founders, Alan Mitchell shares a feeling of Vindication in a post celebrating the companies early articulation of key principles and how the EU’s proposed new Data Governance Act aligns with that.

These providers will have to comply with a number of requirements, in particular the requirement to remain neutral as regards the data exchanged. They cannot use such data for other purposes. In the case of providers of data sharing services offering services for natural persons, the additional criterion of assuming fiduciary duties towards the individuals using them will also have to be met.

We welcome the regulation as a needed common ground for clarifying the role of data intermediaries, building trust in these intermediaries and setting the direction for data governance, including the emergence of digital human rights.

In this context we offer the following suggestions:

  1. Explicitly include individuals as active participants in the definitions [...]
  2. Clarify the scope of the data sharing services (Art. 9 (2)) and extend it to include services that empower the data subject beyond compliance.
  3. Foster the growth of intermediaries, which offer new technologies and have the greatest likelihood of success in Europe if supported by the Data Governance Act.
  4. Open silos and implement soft infrastructure such as standards & open APIs to accelerate uptake and interoperability between data sharing services.
  5. Foster eco-systems and demonstrate the value through practical use-cases.
  6. Create a level playing field for sustainable data sharing by providing funding to pioneers at the forefront of developing data eco-systems

The EU Commission published the long-awaited Data Act on February 23, 2022. This is a progressive legislative proposal to increase access to data for the users of connected products suchs as Iot devices and related services. It is a significant move towards realising the MyData principle of portability, access, and re-use as well as the principle of interoperability. It will potentially also move the needle towards the shift from formal to actionable rights in terms of the right of data portability. With such a progressive agenda, the proposal will certainly also face significant opposition and counter-lobbying from those who stand to benefit from the status quo.

NGI

Next Generation Internet (NGI) The Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative aims to shape the development of the Internet of tomorrow into an Internet of humans that responds to people’s fundamental needs, including trust, security and inclusion, and reflects the values and the norms that we enjoy in Europe.

The NGI initiative aims to build the key technology blocks of a human-centric Internet, which gives end-users full control of their personal data. Through advanced technologies, new decentralised business and social models will ensure secure and trustworthy access for all. https://www.ngi.eu/

Without a clear vision on identity, society will have no agency since the capability to produce future value (data) is not under regional, nor national, nor international regulated control.

Therefore it is important to have a good overview of what is happening in different parts of the world to see if we can not combine innovative solutions.

EICC

Doc Searls, Co-founder and board member of Customer Commons, and Director of ProjectVRM, is to deliver a keynote entitled Where Stands the Sovereign Self? at the European Identity and Cloud Conference 2021. [...] we asked Doc some questions about his planned presentation.

Company

Talao’s team is excited to announce the development of the first Decentralized Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) solution built on the Tezos blockchain for the Human Resources industry. The digital wallet created by Talao will enable companies to issue verifiable professional credentials and for employees to store work history and other personal data.

Government

The information on Horizon Europe, EU Health, Digital Europe, Creative Europe, Digital Single Market, Citizens, Equality, Rights, and Values Programme were shared by the experts and also the representatives of the organizations that have project experience within the scope of these EU programs shared the achievements, outputs, challenges, lessons learned and cooperation processes with EU member states in the projects they implemented.
[...]
Watch all the presentations from the event: 11 May 2022, 12 May 2022

The following article discusses the technical requirements needed to protect our personal data and to ensure a safer digital world. It presents solutions for creating an open and secure IT infrastructure where data privacy can always be guaranteed. The article has been written by esatus, founding member and lead of the “Secure Platform” working group, a thematic group within the IT Security Association Germany (TeleTrusT).

  • Commission proposes a trusted and secure Digital Identity for all Europeans

    However, there is no requirement for Member States to develop a national digital ID and to make it interoperable with the ones of other Member States, which leads to high discrepancies between countries. The current proposal will address these shortcomings by improving the effectiveness of the framework and extending its benefits to the private sector and to mobile use.

  • Digital Identity for all Europeans
    • Available to any EU citizen, resident, or business in the EU who wants to use it
    • Widely useable as a way of identification or to confirm certain personal attributes for the purpose of access to public and private digital services across the EU
    • Giving full control to users to choose which aspects of their identity, data and certificates they share with third parties, and keep track of such sharing
  • TechCrunch Europe wants to go its own way on digital identity

    Alongside today’s regulatory proposal they’ve put out a recommendation, inviting member states to “establish a common toolbox by September 2022 and to start the necessary preparatory work immediately” — with a goal of publishing the agreed toolbox in October 2022 and starting pilot projects (based on the agreed technical framework) sometime thereafter.

    “This toolbox should include the technical architecture, standards and guidelines for best practices,” the commission adds, eliding the large cans of worms being firmly cracked open.

eSSIF Lab

Blockchain Certified Data – Academic Verifiable Credentials (Academic VCs) Upstream Dream AB – Patient-controlled information flows for learning health systems (The LHS project) Mopso Srl – Amlet (A.W.) Credenco B.V. – Digital Certificate of Good Conduct (CoCG) Stichting Cherrytwist – Decentralized Open Innovation Platform (DOIP) Truu Ltd – Healthcare Professionals Digital Staff Passport (Health DSP) Fair BnB Network Società Cooperativa – Stay Fair, Play Fair – a co-operative habitat for music ZENLIFE SARL-S – Zenlife eConsent – under construction LearningProof UG – HonorBox-SSI WorkPi B.V. – Work Performance Intelligence (WorkPi) yes.com AG – European Bank Identity Credentials (Eubic)

Meet Alex Norta, associate professor at TalTech who talks about his project “Self-sovereign multi-factor identity authentication using smart-contract blockchain technology”, that will be carried out in collaboration with the University of Central Florida

The SSI mandate service is a generic and holistic approach to provide and request mandates. Mandates are SSI credentials signed by the dependent that can be requested by either the dependent or authorized representative. These credentials can be used to prove to a verifier that the authorized representative is authorized to act for specific actions on behalf of the dependent.

The concept of SSI was designed with the citizen and privacy in mind. However, existing implementations lack user-friendliness (e.g. showing hash codes to users), creating potential barriers in users’ adoption. OnboardSSI focuses on providing a secure and user-friendly wallet solution creating an easier way for citizens to manage their identity.

The context of the eSSIF-Lab vision can be found in articles 8-10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), that state the rights of individuals regarding their privacy, and their freedoms to collect, process, store, and express information in a self-sovereign fashion, i.e. in a way that they can decide for themselves.

2nd tranche winners are the following:

  1. Verifier Universal Interface by Gataca España S.L. – Building Standard APIs for Verifier components to enable SSI interoperability
  2. Automated data agreements to simplify SSI work flows by LCubed AB (operated under the brand iGrant.io) – Adopt SSI and make it consumable for both organisations and end-users
  3. Presentation Exchange - Credential Query Infra by Sphereon B.V. – Presentation Exchange Interop and Integration
  4. Letstrust.org by SSI Fabric GmbH – Self-Sovereign Identity for everyone: Enterprise & Consumer Cloud Wallet (OIDC-based), Credentials & SDKs as a basis for applications - free
  5. SSI Java Libraries by Danube Tech GmbH – Improving and completing a set of generic, open-source Java libraries for working with DIDs and VCs
  6. WordPreSSI Login by Associazione Blockchain Italia – SSI Login for every WordPress site
  7. NFC DID VC Bridge by Gimly – Enabling the use of NFC secure elements as DID and VC transport for off-line and online identity, authorizations and access management
  • The eSSIF-Lab (European Self Sovereign Identity Framework) has announced the winners of two of its different calls for funding

we have done extensive research & development into a use-case to let employees regain control over their career-related data. Therefore receiving the maximum development grant of €106.000 (funded by the European Commission) to bring our MVP into production.

  • PCDS-DP - Product Circularity Data Sheets Digital Passport
  • ESSIF 4 Logistics - SSI based authorization for cross- border government and business representatives in logistics
  • Symfoni AS - Infrastructure to facilitate payments for verifiable credentials
  • Datarella GmbH - Go Aries – Enabling CL-Support on Aries Framework Go

eIDAS

  • SSI eIDAS Legal Report – Ignacio Alamillo – Webinar 55

    The European Commission developed the SSI (Self-Sovereign Identity) eIDAS bridge, an ISA2 funded initiative, to promote eIDAS as a trust framework for the SSI ecosystem. It assists a VC (Verifiable Credential) issuer in the signing process, and helps the verifier to automate the identification of the organization behind the issuer’s DID (Decentralized Identifier). Simply by “crossing” the eIDAS Bridge, a Verifiable Credential can be proven trustworthy in the EU.

  • eIDAS and Self-Sovereign Identity (Video Dingle Group

    Why then is eIDAS v1 not seen as a success? There are many reasons; from parts of the regulation that focused or constrained its use into the public sphere only, to the lack of total coverage across all of the EU. Likely the key missing piece was that the cultural climate was not yet ripe and the state of digital identity was really not ready. Too many technical problems were yet to be solved. Without these elements the realized state of eIDAS should not be unexpected. All this said, eIDAS v1 laid very important groundwork and created an environment to gather important learnings to allow eIDAS v2 to realize the hoped for levels of success and adoption.

  • Legal compliance and the involvement of governments SSI Ambassador

    It’s currently possible to be eIDAS compliant with SSI, leveraging one out of five scenarios described in the SSI eIDAS legal report by Dr. Ignacio Alamillo Domingo. Especially interesting is the SSI eIDAS bridge, which adds legal value to verified credentials with the use of electronic certificates and electronic seals. However, it’s also possible to derive national eIDs notified in eIDAS, which are eIDAS linked by issuing a verifiable credential with a qualified certificate according to the technical specification.

  • The time for the eIDAS Bridge ValidatedID

if you wonder how many of us, users, can really take advantage of PKI for identifying ourselves on the internet, the answer is quite deceiving. This mature technology has been available for decades but has never become mainstream among the society for identifying end users.

The objective of the topic is to develop, implement and scale up the European Digital Identity framework, based on the revised eIDAS regulatory framework as well as the exchange of evidence as set out in article 14 the Single Digital Gateway Regulation. The broader objective of European Digital Identity is to improve citizen’s access to highly trusted and secure electronic identity means and trust services such as digital signatures, improve citizens’ possibilities to use them and improve their ability to control over sharing their personal identity data.

The uptake of eIDAS (facilitating cross-border acceptance of eIDs) is low relative to the technical capacity of states; only 15 of the 27 Member States able to fulfil the regulation’s requirements of accepting the eIDs of other Member States for public services.

The EU Commission did reflect on the effectiveness of the regulation in its Impact Assessment, and is developing a revision of it. There are multiple revision options being discussed, but thus far, the preferred option would establish a framework that provides citizens with optional use of a personal digital wallet

The new proposal will pivot on some of the more key issues that held back the original framework. For example, instead of enforcing a single, rigid ID that openly reveals everything about an individual indefinitely, the eIDAS 2.0 structure can now potentially employ a flexible, self-sovereign identity (SSI) that puts control of all identifying information entirely into the hands of the end-users they pertain to, in both public and private partnership frameworks.

The main goal of this new program was to provide an implementation of eIDAS bridge and to proof the interoperability between different provider implementations. Validated ID was selected to participate in part of the Call 1 of infrastructure. The results of this project are available as open source. If you are interested in digging into the code, you can find it all in the following repositories: our open source version implementation and the SSI eIDAS Bridge interoperability performed with SICPA.

The document in particular outlines the EUDI Wallet:

Problem 1: Unique wallet IDs
Problem 2: Remote Wallet Kill Switches
Problem 3: Wallet Content Restrictions
Problem 4: Private Sector Restrictions
Exciting New Opportunities for eIDAS 2.0
Opportunity 1: Basic or Enhanced Wallets
Opportunity 2: Turning Regulations Into Revenue
Opportunity 3: Person-to-Person Verification
Opportunity 4: Secure messaging.

Organization

The funding call is within the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) topic 5.3.1.2 which requests support to implement the European Digital Identity Framework and the implementation of the Once Only System under the Single Digital Gateway Regulation. Up to €37m funding is available.

Right now, many enterprises and organisations are building their own SSI solutions by implementing the existing standards and protocols. Since all these parties do similar work and have to face similar problems, it is critical for the community to share these learnings and experiences openly.

The intention of the European Commission is to allow – or even force – acceptance in a wide range of sectors in the public and private domain and thereby ensure that identities are as wisely usable as possible (interoperability). The principle of consent will also be met, as it is already fulfilled with current eID solutions notified under eIDAS and other EU regulations, such as GDPR and PSD2. One of the explicit requirements of the proposal is selective disclosure, in line with GDPR’s rules on data minimalisation.

Let’s examine how SSI meets each of the articles from #13 to #22.

“The results of the survey certainly underline the need for this pioneering European initiative aiming at offering the most convenient user experience (UX) at the highest level of security,” the company adds

With the transition to the web 3.0 ecosystem, the development of distributed registries (blockchain technology) and the regulatory environment that is forcing digital players to favour privacy by design, the ISS approach will become the new standard, whether for entering into customer relations, managing digital identities or ensuring compliance of administrative processes in companies and institutions.

IDNOW

The goal of IATA One ID is to set industry standards that further streamline the passenger journey with digitalization of admissibility and a contactless process through secure biometric enabled identification.

On March 24th, 2022, the European Parliament and Council reached an agreement on the final version of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). According to the European Commission, the DMA regulation is expected to be reviewed and enacted by October 2022.

Digital identity is now recognized as a key building block in digitizing public administration; however, it requires interoperability with private sector use cases to drive value for its citizens.

Europe - Catalonia

The Government will only act as a validator, giving the tools and a secure legal framework, but it will not in any case have the custody of the data.

The Government of Catalonia has presented IdentiCAT, the new decentralized and self-sovereign digital identity model, which aims to become the first public digital identity at a European level and it will be self-managed by the citizen with the absolute legal guarantee and validity to operate with the public administration and the private sector.

IEEE SA co-organized a discussion panel at the Pan-European dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) conference, an event known for its frank and interactive discussions of public policy issues surrounding internet governance. Messages coming out of the discussions will be presented at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) later this year.

The concept of digital identification is already well established, and using a smartphone to board a plane or prove vaccination status is second nature to many millions of people. In the EU however, while many states have made electronic identification available and domestic use is growing, the development of internationally accepted electronic identity (eID) systems has been piecemeal and inconsistent.

Kaliya is working on a commentary about it

Vedran L. Head of Office at European Parliament has released a draft report with tracking of amendments on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 as regards establishing a framework for a European Digital Identity

As the details and technical architecture of the EU Digital Identity Wallet at the time of writing are still unknown, this analysis is based on what is currently known or can be assumed.

The SSI principles of existence, access, interoperability, consent, minimalization, and protection will likely be fulfilled by the EU Digital Identity Wallet. It will allow citizens to have an independent existence.

TR Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate for EU Affairs organized an EU Programs and Project Opportunities Hybrid Workshop on May 11-12, 2022  [...]

You can click to watch all the presentations from the event:

11 May 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKlgfRSCeXI

12 May 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQIgwVJvFuE&t=28020s

The cooperation agreement envisages the design and conceptualisation of a cross-border pilot to be implemented in the near future, with a view to contributing to the development of the European Union’s Digital Identity Framework, recently announced as part of the eIDAS Commission proposal.

Jolocom is currently working on the project “ONCE – Online einfach anmelden” (simply register online – ONCE) alongside a number of prestigious partners, with the aim to bring the digital identity of any citizen onto their smartphone.

The project is part of the competitive innovation programme “Showcase Secure Digital Identities” (SSDI) funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and one of four projects that qualified for the implementation phase.

While the structural difference between SSI approaches and conventional centralised or federated eID schemes is, on one level, profound (full control over data and identity with the user; no third-party intermediary between the user and the service provider), on another level, these differences may also appear highly abstract to ordinary users. What societal and economic consequences they may unfold remains, so far, little understood, also because research on the real social and economic effects of SSI solutions is only beginning.

The EU-funded IMPULSE focuses on building a decentralised Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) model by combining two of the most promising technologies available today, such as Artificial Intelligence and blockchain networks, with the aim of facing the limitation of the existing electronic identification systems in the public sector..

While the EU wallet may not align entirely with every principle of self-sovereign identity, it is certainly a massive leap in that direction.

When it comes to identity management the involvement of the government can be a tricky topic. It needs to be involved to enable access to public services, adapt legislature and guarantee equal access for its citizens. However, it should not be able to control or monitor all aspects and activities of its citizens. Self-sovereign identity (SSI) might for some imply, that a citizen is suddenly able to issue his own ID-card, which isn’t the case. Governments are still the primary source of foundational identities."

The content of the joint declaration is close bilateral cooperation in the development of a cross-border ecosystem of digital identities based on the principles of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI).

In their final recommendations, the researchers from INNOPAY and TNO argue that in view of the social value of digital data exchange, the government would do well to play a driving role in the further consolidation of the SSI playing field. That starts with creating clarity about the relationship between the Digital Government Act and the EU Digital Identity Wallet.

The ID wallet for the digital driver's license is not only technically immature. Government data show: the allocation was not transparent, security checks were incomplete - and the possible direction is questionable.