Potential Consortium nears end of digital wallet pilots

Potential, one of the consortia selected to run large-scale pilots for the upcoming EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet, is preparing to wind down its operations. The consortium will end its work as planned in September 2025.

The organization has laid out the results it has achieved so far, which, aside from technical work, includes developing six use cases for the pan-European digital wallet. The use cases included connecting to online governmental procedures and services (eGov), bank account opening, SIM and eSIM card registration, mobile driving licence (mDL), Qualified eSignature (QES) and ePrescription.

The Consortium was launched in 2023 to support the rollout of the digital identity wallets, which were originally slated for release in 2024, before the implementation deadline for EUDI Wallets was pushed back to 2026. The organization started its first remote tests in May 2024 and has since involved 155 partners across 19 countries, including companies such as Idemia, Thales, Amadeus and Namirial.

In February this year, it completed its first cross-border tests in peer-to-peer mode in Warsaw between 15 national wallets and 20 services. One of these tests involved Ukraine, which checked the compatibility of its electronic documents with the EUDI Wallet, ensuring its citizens can use digital documents in the EU.

Interoperability testing was conducted in May in Vilnius with 1,300 tests carried out between 34 public and private entities, the consortium says.

Last week, Potential also held a hackathon in Vienna to pilot the cross-border electronic exchange of medical prescription documents. The test is meant to show how European citizens could identify themselves in pharmacies abroad and grant pharmacists access to their electronic prescriptions.

Potential says it has developed four main flows for using wallets, allowing users to prove who they are in person, with a QR code or NFC, or online, from their phone or even from another device.

Users may opt for supervised use with a person at a public administration office or a bank, for example, when renewing an ID card. Unsupervised use is similar, but the user interacts with a machine such as a terminal or a self-service kiosk. Users can also use their digital wallets remotely, for example, to access an online service. They can do so on the same device, usually a smartphone, or they can use more devices, for example, a smartphone that scans a QR code on a laptop.

Article Topics

digital wallets  |  EU Digital Identity Wallet  |  pilot project  |  Potential Consortium  |  research and development