Dock Labs

The 4th large-scale EU Digital ID Wallet pilot focuses on something highly practical and universally relevant: Digital Travel Credentials. What sets this pilot apart is its scope. It includes all 27 EU Member States, the UK and Ukraine, making it a genuinely cross-border initiative. But beyond just testing travel use cases, the project has two major foundational goals that could shape the future of the EUDI wallet: 1. Payments: A seamless, interoperable payment system within the EUDI wallet to simplify cross-border transactions, making it easier for people to pay while travelling. 2. Organizational Digital Identity: This aspect of the project aims to help businesses and individuals verify who they are interacting with online, reducing fraud and scams. Think of it as an extra layer of security when conducting business transactions, whether signing contracts, accessing services, or making high-value payments. This is the most ambitious EUDI pilot, both in terms of the number of participating countries and the foundational aspects it seeks to establish. As a quick reminder, these pilot projects aren’t just theoretical exercises. They are backed by €90 million in investment, with €46 million coming directly from the European Commission—a strong indication of how serious the EU is about making the EUDI wallet a reality. But beyond Europe, there’s another interesting angle to consider: what impact, if any, could this have on digital ID regulations in the US? While the US doesn’t have a centralized approach to digital identity like the EU, there’s increasing interest at both the state and federal levels in digital credentials, mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs), and decentralized identity models. Could the lessons from these large-scale EUDI pilots influence future discussions on interoperability, privacy, or cross-border digital identity frameworks in the US? I’ll continue tracking these developments, so stay tuned for more insights on what’s happening in the world of digital identity and verifiable credentials.

Looking forward to attending the Liminal CEO Summit next week! This event gathers leaders shaping the future of fraud prevention, financial crimes compliance, cybersecurity, and trust & safety—all critical to building a more secure digital world. Will you be there? Drop me a message—I’d love to meet and chat.

Widespread adoption of decentralized ID is inevitable. It's happening whether any of us like it or not. I see it gaining momentum and adoption everywhere I look: 🇪🇺 EU regulation is going strong with eIDAS 2.0, and member states are mandated to offer the EUDI wallet. 💳 Mobile driving licenses appearing in many shapes and forms. 🇺🇸 Increased adoption of Google and Apple Wallet by more US states for digital ID programs. 🆔 Multiple other governments are building their own decentralized ID frameworks. KuppingerCole calls decentralized ID the biggest disruption in identity management in decades, and Gartner predicts that 500 million users will have Digital ID Wallets by 2026. ID companies must react quickly and decisively to these changes to ensure they are well-positioned to capitalize on this huge opportunity. Those who embrace decentralized ID now will shape the future of identity verification, unlocking new business models, reducing fraud and friction, and improving user experiences. Those who wait risk being left behind as customers, partners, and governments move forward without them. How is your organization preparing for this shift?

“A trusted, secure, and user-centered approach to digital identity verification (IDV) is critical for the United States to thrive in the digital age.” As Jordan Burris from Socure wrote back in November in his Open Letter to the incoming government administration, ID verification should be hassle-free, delivered in seconds, and is key to unlocking the digital economy and government services. Jordan makes 5 very good points which I'm happy to share here: • Digital identity should be identified as critical infrastructure. • The lack of cohesiveness and leadership on digital identity challenges should be addressed swiftly. • Digital identity providers should have public-facing accountability for the efficacy of their solutions and their impact on customer experience. • A Digital Identity Task Force should be established to build a strong fraud prevention network. • The government should fast-track the use of AI to fight fraud (fraud costs the federal government up to $500 billion annually).    Fortunately, momentum is building around digital identity, with increasing recognition of its role in improving access to government services and reducing fraud. While progress is being made, there's still much work to be done. Kudos to Jordan for pushing this forward.

Here's how ID Verification providers can accelerate customer data matching and reduce onboarding friction: verifiable credentials. IDV providers work tirelessly to identify customers quickly and reliably. Every second spent verifying someone's identity can impact onboarding speed, user satisfaction, and business growth. At a high level, verifiable credentials enable us to issue and store digital identity documents (or "credentials") in a secure, tamper-proof format. When implemented by an IDV provider, this technology can drastically reduce verification time. Let me walk you through the process: 1. Standard ID Verification: A user goes through the standard ID verification process you already have in place—think document scanning, face matching, etc. This creates a validated identity record in your system. 2. Issuing a Digital Credential: Once the user is successfully verified, you (the IDV provider) issue them a digital credential that vouches for their verified identity in your system. This credential is cryptographically secure, meaning it can't be altered without detection. 3. Storing it in a Digital Wallet: The user stores their new digital credential in an "ID wallet." This wallet is their personal repository of verified credentials (much like having a virtual collection of ID documents). Because the credential is tamper-proof, you know you can rely on it whenever it's presented. 4. Instant Matching: Next time you need to verify the same user—say, when they sign up with another one of your clients—they simply present their credentials from their digital wallet. Because it has already been validated, you can instantly confirm the user's identity in your system. That means no lengthy re-verification steps and no repeated data entry. Why Does This Matter? > Faster Onboarding: By leveraging previously verified identities, you reduce onboarding friction. Quicker onboarding means greater user satisfaction and improved conversion rates. > Consistent Identity: Verifiable credentials create a consistent view of a user's identity across all your clients, allowing for easier interoperability among different platforms and institutions. > Business Growth: Your clients see smoother registration, fewer drop-offs, and more completed transactions. This boost in efficiency translates to more business for them—and for you. If you're curious about using verifiable credentials to improve your ID verification process, I'd love to connect.

Institutions sharing consumers' financial data without their consent will face strict penalties in the US. In October 2024, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a final rule to carry out the personal financial data rights established by the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA). Here are the major changes: > Upon request, banks, credit unions, and other financial service providers must securely provide consumers' with their data in a standardized format. > Authorization to share consumers' data must be obtained prior to sharing it with 3rd parties. > The 3rd party authorizations must be re-confirmed every year. > Data cannot be collected, used, or retained for the benefit of entities other than the consumer. > Collection, use, and retention of data becomes limited to what is reasonably necessary to provide the requested product or service. > Targeted advertising, cross-selling of products, and the sale of data are forbidden without explicit consumer consent. I think Decentralized Identity can be a vital suite of technologies that enable organizations working in the US market to mitigate data retention risk and ensure compliance. In fact, using a combination of Verifiable Credentials and self custody wallets, users can be provided with their own data and decide for themselves who they share it with and when. This also will lead to more positive user experiences! The enforcement is set to start in April 2026, unless the Trump administration changes it. You can search for "US CFBP Rule 1001 and 1033" for more details.

Google and Apple have shown interoperability of digital mobile driver's licenses between their own ID wallets at the Internet Identity Workshop. Considering that Apple and Google collectively power 99% of the mobile operating system market, it's hard to imagine a scenario where they won't dominate digital ID distribution. The ability to use a digital ID across different devices and platforms paves the way for much wider adoption. Once end users realize they can access their IDs effortlessly on any phone, friction drops and usage soars. The rise of digital ID wallets offers ID companies a chance to simplify how they verify and onboard customers. However, success isn't about building another wallet to compete with Apple and Google. Instead, it's about solving practical business problems using decentralized ID technology. Here are two areas where this technology excels: 1. Reducing Onboarding Friction: Every time a user has to re-verify the same ID documents, you lose momentum. Onboarding drop-offs lead to missed business opportunities. Decentralized ID allows users to reuse verified ID data to onboard much faster on your clients' or business partners' services. 2. Fixing entity resolution: In many large organizations, different business units maintain their own records for the same customer, often because of siloed identity systems. This leads to disjointed views of customer data and complicates entity resolution—accurately matching a single customer across multiple databases. Decentralized ID allows you to verify the same person across businesses or siloed systems. It lets you confirm that a user has been verified before and create a consistent view of that user's ID. It's clear we're on the cusp of a major shift in how IDs are stored, shared, and verified. As Apple and Google continue to push digital ID into the mainstream, the opportunities for businesses, developers, and solution providers to innovate around these ecosystems will only grow. Remember: Interoperability + Massive Distribution sets the stage, but it's your job to deliver the next wave of innovation. Instead of pouring resources into reinventing the digital wallet, leverage the infrastructure these tech giants are creating and focus on solving the real business problems that keep your clients up at night. - Image: slide from Andrew Tobin's great presentation at EIC in Berlin.

The benefits of faster customer data matching are very clear for IDV providers, their clients and end-customers. Here's what we see happening with the IDV providers we serve at Dock Labs: Reduced onboarding friction for customers After completing the initial ID verification, IDV providers issue customers a reusable verifiable credential that identifies them. When the customer presents this credential during onboarding with another one of the IDV's clients, the IDV can instantly confirm that the customer has been verified before. This allows the IDV to match their data quickly and accurately, eliminating the need for repetitive data entry and document submissions. Streamlined customer acquisition for their clients Reducing delays and drop-offs when opening accounts improves conversion rates in their client's acquisition funnel. Higher interoperability between clients and systems For IDV providers with large client bases, verifiable credentials allow them to offer seamless onboarding across multiple clients. IDV providers, their clients, and the end-customers benefit. Everybody wins, don't you think?

Nigeria wants to replace its physical PVC voter ID card with a digital ID credential. 🇳🇬 So far, physical ID cards have been the go-to way to prove a citizen's identity at polling stations in past elections. However, physical PVC cards have serious problems: > Allegations of vote-buying and identity fraud. > Producing them adds up to election costs. > It's not easy for people to collect them. With this in mind and the success of their biometric ID system, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is recommending replacing voter ID cards with a biometric voter verification system. If approved, it would mean one more step towards moving away from physical ID cards to use digital ID credentials. Hopefully, these will be verifiable credentials that preserve the citizen's privacy, enable them to retain control over who they share them with and when. Combined with biometrics (biometric bound credentials0, they can also ensure that only the person they were issued to can use them, an essential aspect of high assurance use case such as voting.

New date confirmed! Amazon is doubling down on digital credentials and preparing to accept mDLs and EUDI. What does this mean for the future of identity? I'm thrilled to chat with ⚾️ Paul Grassi , Amazon’s Principal Product Manager for Identity Services, to dive into the 'why' behind these exciting developments. 🗓 When? February 19th ⏰ Time: 5 pm GMT | 9 am PT Register now (it’s free): https://lnkd.in/evBpqSU6 I’m looking forward to seeing you there!