Digital identity takes center stage at G20 TechSprint as OIDF, ID4Africa joins judging panel

Digital identity featured prominently for the first time at the G20 TechSprint, with global open identity standards body OpenID Foundation (OIDF) participating as a judge in the 2025 edition of the annual innovation challenge.

This year’s competition focused on “trust and integrity in scalable and open finance.” The  finalists presented solutions across three problem areas: verifiable and privacy‑preserving digital identity, credit data portability for SMEs, and fraud and cyber risk mitigation in fast payment systems.

OpenID Foundation executive director Gail Hodges served on the expert panel evaluating digital identity solutions, alongside ID4Africa executive chairman Joseph Atick and Reserve Bank of India executive director Shri P. Vasudevan.

The category challenged participants to design identity systems that can establish trust across borders while protecting user privacy and scaling across jurisdictions. It’s a growing concern for regulators as cross‑border payments expand.

South Africa’s Ownapay SA won the digital identity category, while Singapore’s Silence Laboratories took the credit data portability award, and UK‑based FNA and Proto won the fraud mitigation challenge. Each category winner received up to $30,000.

Ownapay’s Flow introduces a hybrid payment‑and‑identity ecosystem aimed at expanding financial inclusion across varied markets. It combines blockchain‑based identity, zero‑knowledge proofs and AI‑driven voice authentication to enable secure payments on both feature phones and smartphones.

The system is designed to interoperate with digital and traditional payment systems, delivering privacy‑preserving transactions without sacrificing security. Privately-owned Ownapay was incorporated in 2021 and has 21 employees. BIS has a full report on the 2025 edition of the innovation challenge, featuring all the finalists.

Hodges also delivered a keynote on digital identity standards, highlighting how the global cybercrime surge underscores the need for high‑assurance digital credentials. The rapid shift toward decentralized, wallet‑based and verifiable credential models was driven in part by privacy concerns in early‑adopting markets.

She said events like the TechSprint have a vital role to play in accelerating adoption and innovation. “It was a true honour to judge the first ever G20 TechSprint on digital identity,” Hodges said, and expressed hope that the United States government will prioritize digital identity during its upcoming G20 presidency.

The event, jointly organized by the South African Reserve Bank and the BIS Innovation Hub under the G20 Presidency, drew more than 165 teams from over 30 countries. The final awards ceremony can be viewed here. This month Bloomberg became the latest OpenID Foundation member.

Article Topics

cross-border data sharing  |  digital ID  |  digital trust  |  financial inclusion  |  fintech  |  G20  |  OpenID Foundation  |  research and development