The German approach to EUDI Wallet: SPRIND launches sandbox for relying parties

Germany is planning to introduce a state digital identity wallet as part of the European Union Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet scheme, which will gradually become usable by 2027.

At the center of this work is a startup-like organization called the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND), which launched a sandbox for selected German relying parties this week to test their ecosystem and implementation against the government wallet. Later in 2026, the sandbox will be extended so that relying parties and issuers can test and prepare before going into production, according to Mirko Mollik, identity architect at SPRIND.

“Our current approach is that everyone in Germany that wants to participate has to pass this sandbox,” he says.

Mollik is one of the people in charge of developing the architecture proposal for the German EUDI Wallet. Last week, he explained how Germany is approaching EUDI implementation in a webinar published by Dock Labs.

SPRIND is currently rushing not just to develop an EUDI Wallet app and certify it, but also to build a whole ecosystem around it by Christmas next year. Alongside the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the agency was given the lead over this specific task in part to avoid being bogged down by Germany’s famous bureaucracy. Other teams are also working on the national wallet project.

At the beginning, the organization focused on just writing a blueprint on how an ecosystem could be set up. But soon, it was clear that a “nice PDF” was not enough and a team working on the national wallet was founded.

“At the beginning of the year, we were around 40 people, and right now, we are all over 120 and still hiring,” says Mollik.

The country is envisioning not just a state digital ID wallet but multiple wallets. Last year, SPRIND selected eleven companies to participate in its Funke Challenge, a 3-month prototype competition in designing EUDI Wallet prototypes for German users. The four winning teams were declared in October and included wwWallet, HEIDI, Animo Easy-PID and Lissi ID-Wallet.

Among the competitors were also big names such as Samsung and Google.

​“We say to the Big Tech – ‘welcome,’” says Mollik, but adds that all wallets will need to be aligned with privacy requirements and remain free of charge of users.

The agency has been working on making digital ID wallets which are easy to use, giving an experience similar to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. On the other hand, developers are trying to ensure that users do not share sensitive information with just anyone. SPRIND has been investigating technologies such as Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) cryptography to improve privacy

SPRIND has also been participating in creating the missing standards needed for digital IDs to operate, including in organizations such as the Open ID Foundation, ETSI and W3C. But the agency is not only about the “nerdy stuff,” it is also involving civil society and minority groups to ensure no one is left behind in Europe’s big leap towards digital identity.

The first core function of the mobile app wallet will be identification. Citizens will also be able to produce digital documents and sign them with a qualified electronic signature (QES). More functions are to be introduced over time.

The EUDI Wallet has so far held four Large-Scale Pilots (LSPs) that included multiple EU member states, relying parties, issues and wallet providers to test its use and interoperability. SPRIND has contributed by testing the Funke wallets as part of the POTENTIAL consortium.

​“Wallets from Germany were compatible with issuers from Greece and verifiers from the Netherlands,” says Mollik. “However, they all kind of struggled with changing standards.”

Currently, the EU is running a second round of Large-Scale Pilots, including two big consortia, APTITUDE and WEBUILD.

Article Topics

digital ID  |  digital identity  |  digital wallets  |  Dock  |  EU Digital Identity Wallet  |  Germany  |  Lissi  |  SPRIND