Hopae launches hConnect targeting EU digital wallets and global integration

Hopae has launched its global eID verification platform hConnect.

The hConnect platform offers over 100 eIDs and 99 percent wallet compatibility with compliance by design, according to Hopae.

“Our goal with hConnect is simple,” says Ace Shim, CEO of Hopae. “Make identity from around the world accepted instantly.”

Government issued digital IDs (eIDs) are becoming the new standard. In the European Union, eIDAS 2.0 is targeting 80 percent adoption of eIDs by 2030. Gartner is projecting more than 500 million smartphone users will use digital identity wallets by 2026.

“During this paradigm shift of eID, we aim to help companies transform this compliance burden into a conversion booster,” says Shim.

This shift means companies will have to choose between direct or indirect integration. Hopae believes indirect integration is a robust alternative to direct integration, with the latter posing technical and administrative challenges when connecting with each national system.

Intermediaries, as defined under eIDAS 2.0 ARF, can act as a gateway to national eIDs. Those companies thinking about an intermediary can consider wallet coverage, UX flexibility and IDV compatibility.

Hopae says hConnect should cover full EU eIDs by Q3 2026, with the API compliant with eIDAS 2.0, GDPR, ISO 27001 and SOC 2. It has a customizable UX and plugs into existing IDV.

Hopae is invested in the integration of eIDs. This spring it challenged developers worldwide to work on digital identity verification and eID integration, sweetening it with a $1 million bounty.

Developers were invited to build “critical integrations” to connect the world’s eID systems into one unified verification network. Those taking part had to submit code for Hopae to evaluate and to work with Hopae’s hConnect in mind.

Hopae’s hConnect is the company’s identity verification API. The single API connects eIDs worldwide into one unified verification network, meaning hConnect allows businesses to let users verify their identity “with just one click.” For it to work on a global scale, however, as many eIDs as possible must be integrated into hConnect. So that is the bounty challenge: a global coding competition.

Hopae has been expanding its technology to the U.S. as it secured $6.5 million in funding a few months ago, and is focused on open-source building blocks for digital wallets having previously made its name building a national vaccination pass (COOV) during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company believes the current identity verification system is “fundamentally flawed.”

Hopae operates offices in Seoul, San Francisco and Paris. Its ambitions are big with Shim having said he wants to see Hopae become as big as Visa.

Article Topics

API  |  digital ID  |  e-ID  |  hConnect  |  Hopae  |  identity verification