South Korea’s ETRI sets sights on international standard for digital ID wallets

South Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has officially begun a project to create an international standard for digital identity wallets.

ETRI aims to define a unified framework to ensure that users can store and present government-issued IDs, mobile driver’s licenses, student cards, credit cards and more on their smartphones worldwide.

This comes as local technologists have warned of the potential problems caused by having non-compliant digital ID, risking isolation from the global network and which would leave Koreans unable to use digital passports overseas, for example.

“International standardization is more than just a technology competition, it’s a strategic activity at the national level,” says Seung-Chan Bang, President of ETRI. “We will actively support research to ensure Korea achieves global leadership in digital identity authentication technology.”

ETRI has a number of rights to intellectual property in user-centric identity management and multi-factor authentication technology, which are major components of digital identity wallets. These authentication factors include biometrics and PINs, while FIDO2-based authentication protocols are adopted to meet international security standards.

ETRI is leading the project, with the Financial Security Institute and start-up Hopae joint participants. It is working with the Financial Security Institute to align with domestic security requirements. Hopae is cooperating with OpenWallet Foundation’s open-source platform and is the project’s bridgehead into European markets.

The timing dovetails with the European Union’s eIDAS 2.0 regulation, which came into force in May 2024 and sets a target of having 80 percent of EU citizens using digital wallets by 2030. ETRI is also strengthening ties with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Linux Foundation’s OpenWallet Forum to ensure cross-border compatibility and to accelerate standard adoption among device makers, financial institutions and public agencies.

ETRI’s Cyber Security Research Division says it will promote the technology across the digital identity authentication industry. ETRI plans to collaborate with official standards organizations — such as ISO, ITU and ETSI — to secure global interoperability and widespread adoption.

Article Topics

digital ID  |  digital wallets  |  Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI)  |  Hopae  |  ITU standards  |  South Korea  |  standards