Linux’s OpenWallet Foundation readies launch of open-source engine for digital wallets

In just six months, the OpenWallet Foundation (OWF) has grown from three to 350 global organizations, including trillion-dollar companies, which intend to collaborate to create and open-source engine that “anyone can use to build interoperable, secure, and privacy-protecting digital wallets.”

As the Linux Foundation Europe prepares to launch the OWF in early 2023, it held a panel discussion at the closed-source World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.

The hope that bringing together multiple vendors to build the engine will tackle head-on the issues of interoperability that have faced the digital identity sector for decades: “The common open source base layer of digital wallets promises to enhance interoperability between different digital wallets, ultimately avoiding lock-in to single digital wallets and serving the interests of digital wallet users and consumers,” states a Linux Foundation release.

The project also intends to tackle the issues of legal and regulatory interoperability as well as the technical challenges.

Panelists at the in-person only event called for greater collaboration between government, industry and the open-source community to ensure “the responsible and inclusive development of digital wallet technologies and to ensure that the benefits are shared by all, not just a select few.

“The OWF stands to play a crucial role in stewarding such multi stakeholder collaborations in the future.”

Ethan Veneklasen from ID2020 said: “When it comes to something as fundamental as our identity, moving fast and breaking things can’t be our modus operandi. It just can’t.”

Article Topics

digital identity  |  digital wallets  |  Linux Foundation  |  open source  |  OpenWallet Foundation (OWF)