Anonyme Labs partners with Utah Valley University to introduce student digital wallet

Anonyme Labs is working with Utah Valley University (UVU) on a pilot project for student verifiable credentials (VCs).

The company said in an announcement that the mission is to build a mobile app to enable students to store, manage, and share their student IDs and other academic credentials in digital format. Its technology is built on the Open Badges 3.0 standard and uses the OpenID4VC and DIDComm protocols.

According to Anonyme Labs, the move puts UVU among the first universities in the United States to use student VCs.

With the mobile app, students can share their credentials in cryptographic format from their smartphones.

The company says the pilot intends to “explore how this new type of digital credential can be used in select online (and also upcoming in-person) situations, how they function in real-world settings, and to gather feedback in preparation for a future campus-wide rollout.”

The feedback obtained from users during the test will inform the next steps of the initiative. Another planned phase of the pilot is also expected to integrate the wallet system with the Utah State Endorsed Digital Identity (SEDI), an optional digital ID which is being introduced.

With this digital credentials initiative, UVU says it is looking forward to an era where its students no longer use plastic IDs, but instead have “secure tamperproof digital records that are instantly verifiable and fully owned by them, accessible anytime, shareable anywhere.”

Anonyme Labs underscores the importance of VCs in the education sector, noting that, as in the case of UVU, it can go a long way in addressing challenges related to credential sharing, verification, and security in terms of tampering.

“Student credentials will move to the digital world. The only question is which institutions lead the way. UVU is choosing to lead,” the company says.
To use the digital wallet, UVU students must first get verified by the university using registration documents. A signed digital credential is then sent to their wallet, and they can share the credential with any third party, who can verify it easily in seconds.

Among other things, the digital student ID credentials will enable UVU students to sit for exams, use public transportation, and get access to the gym and secure labs.

The UVU project is part of an ongoing shift to VCs, which are considered better than normal digital ID verification systems, especially in the education sector.

A recent example is Japan, where the government is using My Number ID to digitize student records and issue them as VCs.

Last year, Anonyme Labs joined forces with Cheqd to strengthen the issuance and monetization of digital credential.

Article Topics

Anonyme Labs  |  DIDComm  |  digital wallets  |  OpenID4VC  |  student ID  |  verifiable credentials