Governments, industry groups, and standards bodies are accelerating efforts to harmonize digital identity systems globally, aiming to make digital IDs interoperable, secure, and widely trusted. In late 2025, the FIDO Alliance launched a new Digital Credentials Working Group (DCWG) to advance the adoption of verifiable digital credentials and identity wallets, bringing together major tech consortia and standards organizations to align fragmented digital identity ecosystems.
At the same time, South Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) was tapped to lead a project under the International Telecommunication Union’s ITU-T Study Group 17 to develop international standards for digital identity wallets. This initiative focuses on interoperability across different digital ID systems, with the goal of ensuring secure and compatible identity wallets can be used across borders and sectors like finance, public services, and travel.
In Africa, the Smart Africa Data Exchange (SADX) is being positioned as a digital public infrastructure built on open standards that supports trusted data flows and digital identity recognition across countries, which could help people access services ranging from banking to healthcare without country-specific barriers.
Such coordinated standardization efforts come as digital identity solutions — from mobile driver’s licenses to EU-defined digital wallets and reusable credentials — proliferate around the world, highlighting the need for common frameworks that ensure privacy, security, and portability.News as reported.
