Digital wallet privacy, ecosystem roles draw the OIX spotlight

Sep 21, 2023, 5:14 pm EDT | Chris Burt

Digital wallet privacy, ecosystem roles draw the OIX spotlight

Digital wallets represent the next stage in the public adoption of digital IDs, according to the Open Identity Exchange. The upcoming #IdentityTrust2023 conference will therefore focus on the progress digital wallets have made, and what organizations of all sizes need to know to benefit from them.

The theme of the OIX event is “Building Trust in Digital Identity,” and several presentations will directly address trends and issues around digital wallets.

OpenID Foundation Chair Nat Sakimura will deliver a keynote presentation on the “Fallacy of Decentralization,” dealing with the need to avoid data in an a decentralized ecosystem being managed by a small number of hosts. The Open Wallet Foundation’s Jospeh Heenan will discuss the work on open source wallet components and their importance to secure interoperability. Visa’s Maria Austenaa will moderate a panel on progress by the EU’s eIDAS.

The issue is hardly confined to Europe. Across the Atlantic, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is looking for private sector partners to help it digitize immigration and travel credentials. The credentials would then be shared from a digital wallet, without the issuer receiving any information of how it is used, Bloomberg Law notes in a deep-dive.

“The way the credentials are presented within a wallet, the digital elements, privacy requirements, as well as the investment, is a complex and highly technical undertaking, so it needs to be led by the right party,” says OIX Chief Identity Strategist Nick Mothershaw. “We don’t see this as being a role for government.”

The conference will therefore present how and why the private sector should lead on digital wallets.

#IdentityTrust2023 will be held on September 28 at County Hall in London.