Digital identities foster trust in the billions of interactions that take place online every day. For governments, this trust forms the foundation of modern public service delivery. As the UK House of Commons notes, “digital identity systems can offer efficiency, fraud reduction, and privacy protection.” The technical foundation for this transformation rests on evolving international standards. For example, ISO/IEC 18013-5:2021 establishes interface specifications for mobile driving license applications and sets the foundations for a variety of digital credentials. Similarly, OpenID for Verifiable Credentials (OpenID4VC) defines an API and OAuth-based authorization mechanisms for credential issuance across additional use cases—both technologies will be important in the implementation of digital credentials from national identity documents and professional certifications to educational credentials and health records.
These standards enable governments to…
