Identosphere 238 July 27-Aug 3: EUDI Wallet Hype vs. Reality • SAP • Mastercard • Lots of Research • Considering AI
Hi Identosphere Subscribers,
Yesterday I asked what you wanted to see more of as we restart this journey together. While those responses pour in, we are getting back on track with the overview of news from last week.
I am asking for your help as I reboot and get the newsletter going again: Please take this poll and share what you love and what you would like to see more of.
News from Kaliya!
Joining the Sideways Verifiable Communities project
I’m excited to share that I have joined the Verifiable Community project led by Grace Rachmany.
This is a full circle moment for me, returning me to the roots of why I devoted 20 years of my life to the digital identity field. My passion has been in fostering the creation of distributed identity protocols that support people’s having control over the identifiers and share meaningful information about people, organizations, things, agents and really anything that can be pointed at with an identifier.
Hiring
Software Engineer, Self-Sovereign Identity & Experience (MVP)
Selfverse is reimagining digital identity and human-computer interaction. We believe reality can function as a personalized operating system, where every individual has a living, evolving digital twin that empowers true digital sovereignty.
We're seeking a highly skilled and creatively-minded Software Engineer to translate our visionary no-code prototype into a robust, secure, and extensible MVP.
Big Picture
Understanding the Complete Identity Management Ecosystem
Confused by the growing identity management landscape? This comprehensive guide breaks down every IAM category—from traditional workforce identity to emerging AI agents. Learn how CIAM, PAM, Zero Trust, and 15+ other solutions connect in the modern security ecosystem.
Showing up in Interesting Places
SAP Product: Decentralized Identity Verification
Use self-sovereign identity for inter-company communications, enabling you to sign, verify, and manage verifiable credentials
Why Mastercard Is Betting on mDLs
Mastercard is backing mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs) not just as a convenience feature, but because they’re built on international identity standards. Just like EMV enabled global payments interoperability, these standards are now paving the way for global digital identity.
Company News
The Hashgraph Group unveils IDTrust to challenge Worldcoin and Microsoft
The Hashgraph Group (THG) has launched a self-sovereign identity (SSI) platform called “IDTrust” to provide a blockchain-based digital identity solution for individuals and institutions.
Implement digital identity in Europe with SD-JWT VCs from Indicio Proven
New Markets for Verifiable Credentials?
KYB for Nonprofits: How U.S. NGOs Can Meet AML Requirements Without Disrupting Donor Trust
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury have flagged the misuse of charitable organizations as a financial crime risk, prompting increased expectations for due diligence and transparency.
AI and Identity
(Auth0) Securing Cloudflare Agents with Auth0
How to implement Auth0 authentication and authorization for AI running on Cloudflare's edge network. Secure your Workers AI with token-based security, offering a starter kit and step-by-step deployment instructions.
DIF Partners with MIT's Project NANDA for Packed Event
DIF partnered with MIT's Project NANDA for a well-attended event at Circuit Launch on July 18, 2025, where Ramesh Raskar shared his vision for architecting an Internet of AI Agents. DIF Technical Steering Committee chair Andor Kesselman served as co-host, with robust discussion focusing on the relevance of decentralized identity for the agentic web.
Europe
[Slide Deck] The Swiss e-ID and trust infrastructure From GDC
EUDI Wallet Hype vs. Reality
Chips in: Why it’s time to tap into NFC-enabled identity verification.
In a significant milestone in the evolution of Europe’s digital identity framework, the European Commission has adopted Regulation (EU) 2025/1208, which authorizes private sector companies to access key data stored in the chips of electronic identity documents (eIDs), most notably the bearer’s portrait (DG2) via Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.
Auto Industry: Canada
(DIACC) [Report] Building Trust at the Frontlines – Client ID Verification for Canada’s Auto Finance Sector
As fraud, regulatory scrutiny, and consumer expectations evolve, Canadian Automotive Retail and Finance Sectors are under pressure to modernize identity verification (IDV) practices. This report summarizes insights from DIACC’s recent industry forum, where finance leaders, dealership executives, and regulators explored the impact of digital IDV solutions on reducing fraud, improving operational efficiency, and fostering consumer trust.
Thoughtful
Just talk to people: Why we love community calls
In this blog post, I reflect on why community calls hold such significance to me. For me, community calls are vital hubs where connections, ideas, and growth converge.
What WSIS+20 Taught Me About Digital Identity and Global Governance
What they do understand is that technology is not neutral. Technologists and policymakers must shape it around a platform of human rights. Where I’ve previously written that “the technology is ready, the governance is not,” what I saw here is that the governance work is happening, but it’s happening in a different room, with a very different vocabulary.
(John Wonderlich) AI Platform Choices
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.
Enough AI copilots! We need AI HUDs [Heads Up Displays]
I don’t believe HUDs are universally better than copilots! But I do believe anyone serious about designing for AI should consider non-copilot form factors that more directly extend the human mind.
(Doc Searls) Getting Real With AI
We use adpositions, which include prepositions, to make sense of the natural world. They are made for our embodied selves. Under, around, through, beside, within, beneath, above, into, near, toward, with, outside, amid, beyond (and dozens more) make full sense where we eat, breathe, use all five of our senses.
All these thinkings came to mind this morning when I read two pieces:
* Peter Thiel Just Accidentally Made a Chilling Admission. Five Decades Ago, One Man Saw It Coming. By Nick Ripatrazone in Yahoo News
* What’ll happen if we spend nearly $3tn on data centres no one needs? by somebody behind the FT paywall. But I could read it here, so I did, and maybe you can too.
Standards
Progress New draft: Decentralized Identifier Resolution (DID Resolution) v0.3
Research
A Decentralized Framework for Ethical Authorship Validation in Academic Publishing: Leveraging Self-Sovereign Identity and Blockchain Technology
Academic publishing faces growing threats from unethical practices like unconsented authorship, gift authorship, and undisclosed conflicts of interest, which existing systems like ORCID cannot adequately address. This paper proposes a blockchain-based framework using Self-Sovereign Identity technology and Zero-Knowledge Proofs to create a transparent, decentralized system that verifies author identities and contributions while detecting conflicts of interest without compromising privacy.
The impact of zero-knowledge proofs on data minimisation compliance of digital identity wallets
The European Digital Identity Framework creates tension with GDPR's data minimization principle because electronic attestations require auxiliary information that can serve as personal identifiers, potentially compromising user privacy in digital wallet transactions. However, rapidly advancing privacy-enhancing technologies like zero-knowledge proofs can resolve this conflict by enabling compliance verification without exposing sensitive data, though regulatory bodies must enforce their adoption and accelerate standardization to ensure privacy protection.
Off Chain Storage Solution for Healthcare Data
Off-chain storage systems are emerging as crucial solutions for healthcare data management, combining blockchain's auditability and access control with distributed storage technologies like IPFS to handle large volumes of sensitive medical data while maintaining privacy and scalability. These systems use technologies such as proxy re-encryption and self-sovereign identity to enable patients to dynamically control data access across institutions while ensuring compliance with regulations like HIPAA and GDPR, representing a foundational strategy for secure, patient-centered healthcare networks.
A Digital Identity Blockchain Ecosystem: Linking Government-Certified and Uncertified Tokenized Objects
This paper proposes a hierarchical blockchain-based digital identity ecosystem where governments issue unique, non-replicable identity tokens as root certificates, while individuals can attach additional tokens from various institutions (educational, financial, etc.) to build verifiable digital identity trees. The system combines government-enforced uniqueness with user-driven identity formation, and economic analysis demonstrates that this blockchain implementation is financially viable for all stakeholders including governments, users, and certifying institutions.
Regula and Indicio Partner to Transform Identity Verification With Verifiable Credentials
Regula enters a strategic technology partnership with Indicio, a market leader in Verifiable Credential technology and decentralized identity solutions. Together, the two companies will deliver a breakthrough in portable digital trust by issuing document and biometric identity verification solutions as tamper-proof Verifiable Credentials.
Identity Not SSI
How Passport Recognition Is Changing the Game in Digital Identity
Passport recognition is no longer futuristic tech; it’s a real solution already reshaping how we verify identity across apps, borders, and industries. Whether you’re streamlining travel check-ins, onboarding banking customers, or securing virtual healthcare visits, this technology helps eliminate friction and boost security. It ensures you’re not just looking at a document, you’re verifying the person behind it.