OpenID community to demo digital ID interoperability, DIF Labs taking proposals

Ecosystems supporting interoperable and decentralized models of digital identity are maturing rapidly, and a pair of organizations at different ends of the community-building process have announced milestones.

The OpenID Foundation is bringing together governments, standards bodies, technology vendors, end-user organizations and technical experts for a demonstration that “proves” a secure, privacy-preserving identity is “ready for prime time.”

OpenID believes the single biggest barrier to seamless user experiences is interoperability, but in its upcoming showcase three specifications – the OpenID Verifiable Presentation (OID4VP), the High Assurance Interoperability Protocol (HAIP) and the Digital Credentials API (DC API) – are unified. “It’s a real-world demonstration of cross-platform credential exchange, privacy-first architecture, and enterprise-grade security,” the foundation said.

Groups participating in the demo will include the NIST NCCoE, Mattr, Spruce, Animo, and 1Password among 10 teams developing digital wallets and verification solutions. They will work with credentials based on the ISO mDoc format widely utilized by mobile driver’s licenses, and Selective Disclosure JWTs (SD-JWTs).

NIST NCCoE’s mDL architecture for opening a bank account, which uses the OID4VP, DC API and HAIP specifications, will also be demonstrated during the event.

Attendance will be free but registration is required, while the demonstration can be joined from anywhere virtually. For those working in digital identity, wallets, credentials, EUDI Wallet stakeholders, government officials, and standards experts, among others, it sounds like appointment viewing.

The demonstration will take place on Monday, May 5 at 4:30-6:00pm CET/10:30am-12:00pm ET/7:30-9:00am PT. Those interested can register here.

DIF seeks next class

DIF Labs is seeking entrants for its Beta Cohort 2 that will drive “focused, high-leverage work” at the intersection of identity, trust, and emerging technologies.

Proposals are sought from builders, researchers, and collaborators on decentralized identity, cryptography, authenticity and verifiable AI. The inaugural Beta Cohort of teams had focused on a protocol to prove personhood while protecting anonymity, verified skill credentials, and a project that adds an identity layer to Bitcoin ordinals.

DIF Labs says this cohort emphasizes not just experimentation, but building projects that can be maintained and extended over time. Applicants who are successful will receive mentorship, ecosystem support, and opportunities to collaborate with “leading initiatives in decentralized infrastructure.”

DIF Labs is encouraging proposals aligned with certain focuses. These include Personhood Credentials – scalable, privacy-preserving systems for verifying human identity in decentralized environments; Content Authenticity and Assertions – tooling and frameworks to verify the authenticity of digital content and combat misinformation; Applied Cryptography – advancement of cryptographic tools critical to decentralized identity; Verifiable AI – mechanisms for verifying AI-generated outputs, ensuring transparency and trust; Industry-aligned Applications – practical decentralized identity solutions in area like Industrial IoT and operational privacy.

Submission deadline is May 20, applicants must be DIF members, while the full proposal process is linked on this page. DIF Labs is an initiative of the Decentralized Identity Foundation.

Article Topics

Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF)  |  digital identity  |  OpenID Foundation  |  research and development