MOSIP pursues democratization of digital identity with unconference conversations

A democratic vision of digital identity is central to the non-profit, open-source mandate of MOSIP. As the organization and the community it is building mature, part of democratizing the conversation around digital ID is inviting different stakeholders to share their questions, insights, challenges and concerns.

The final day of MOSIP Connect 2026 in Rabat, Morocco was conducted as an unconference to further that vision. Kaliya Young of Identity Woman Consulting, returning after bringing the concept of running an unconference with open space technology (OST) to MOSIP Connect 2025 in Manilla, Philippines, led the proceedings along with Juan Cabellero of the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF).

On Thursday, MOSIP Chairman Prof. Debabrata Das concluded Day 2 of the event with an impassioned address on the need to continue democratizing the global conversation on digital identity to ensure the technology’s development reflects the priorities of the people it is built to serve.

Attendees decided on an agenda with sessions covering the costs and economic impact of digital identity systems, business wallets, encryption key management, interoperability barriers between the EU and Indian identity systems, AI and open source, authorization concerns, authentication within the MOSIP ecosystem, sectoral concerns such as in healthcare, and many other topics. Close to 50 were arranged across a dozen rooms in four groups of sessions throughout the day.

Community concerns and questions

One of the opening discussion convened by Steve Pannifer of Fime centered a framework for comparing digital identity systems, and how it can be utilized to further work on interoperability between those systems.

Representatives of several digital public goods (DPGs) discussed how they can benefit from AI, and formed a working group to keep on top of the technology’s rapid developments. Non-profits learned of discounts available to them for AI tools, attendees exchanged stories of cyber attacks and specific challenges and use cases for technologies from VCs to the Inji digital wallet.

A session on securing physical ID documents with visual cryptographic seals brought together stakeholders from government agencies in multiple countries, OpenCRVS and FaceTec. The conversation touched on the use of derived identity number in a bar code to avoid exposing the individual’s sensitive data, the degrees of assurance different mechanisms provide and how those mechanisms interact, and the role digital signed codes containing biometrics leave for secure printing features.

The intersection of sovereignty, governance and risk was explored in an afternoon session, where Gluu Founder and CEO Mike Schwartz pointed out that governments tend to be much better at governance than operations, and Adam Cooper of Next ID proposed that they will be better able to protect themselves from adverse outcomes by focusing on risk mitigation than digital sovereignty.

Many of the topics discussed delved into the specific concerns of countries currently adopting MOSIP. But several countries that have not yet signed MoUs with MOSIP had representatives at Connect 2026 as well, including Nepal, which recently secured millions in funding from the World Bank and ADB to develop a new national ID system and build up its digital public infrastructure, and Indonesia.

Attendee impressions

A discussion between government representatives of two MOSIP-adopting countries sparked a conversation about interoperability that led to an unconference sessions, Next Biometrics SVP Digvijay Singh Kanwar told Biometric Update.

Credence ID’s Adam Ross noted the increase in the number of both attendees and exhibiting vendors reflects that growth.

BixeLab Founder Ted Dunstone told Biometric Update that for him a highlight of the event was the fireside chat held on the morning of Day 1 in which UIDAI’s Bhuvnesh Kumar discussed Aadhaar’s plans and priorities with Sanjay Jain of the Gates Foundation.

Xperix Head of Sales for Europe and Africa Paul Kennedy said the greatest benefit he has taken from the event is in networking with his company’s partners, like Emptech, Laxton, BioRugged and HYF. A few government representatives have also inquired during Connect about the specific kinds of fingerprint scanning technology that they should apply to their use case.

Andrew Musoke of CMU Africa told Biometric Update that he appreciated the technical focus of many sessions. He also noted that a significant number of technology vendors were showcasing products related to digital sovereignty – a topic of broad interest at the event.

MOSIP CTO Ramesh Narayanan pointed to a subtle difference in this year’s edition of Connect in his closing remarks. The polite curiosity common to the first running of Connect has shifted to more high-value interactions and practical steps towards implementing and improving digital identity applications.

An increase in contentious conversations comes with the territory, he suggests, and is a sign of a healthy democracy.

Biometric Update’s coverage as MOSIP Connect 2026 official media partner will continue with interviews and explorations of several key themes from the event in the weeks ahead.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  digital sovereignty  |  MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform)  |  MOSIP Connect 2026