Hopae Adds Biometric Verification for Brazil’s Digital Driver’s License

Digital identity infrastructure provider Hopae has added real-time verification of Brazil’s digital driver’s license, known as the CNH, to its Connect platform.

The service combines secure decoding of the credential’s QR code with a facial biometric comparison. A user presents the digital CNH and takes a live selfie, which Hopae compares with the photograph held in the official driver’s-license record. The result includes a similarity score and confidence rating intended to show whether the presenter is the credential holder.

QR decoding extracts identity and license fields directly from the credential rather than relying on text entered by the user. Those fields can include the holder’s name, CPF tax identifier, date of birth, parent names, license category, registration number, expiration date, first-license date and issuing state.

Hopae then checks the decoded information against systems maintained by Brazil’s tax authority and SENATRAN, the National Traffic Secretariat. That correlation is designed to confirm both the document and the current validity of the underlying demographic and license data. The company is packaging the checks behind a single application programming interface for onboarding and identity-verification providers.

Coverage is potentially broad because QR codes became mandatory on newly issued CNH credentials on May 1, 2017. Hopae says Brazil has more than 85 million driver’s-license records and over 65 million digital CNH credentials, alongside more than 200 million CPF records. Those figures are supplied by the company and describe the available identity ecosystem rather than Hopae’s own transaction volume.

The product arrives as wallet providers add support for Brazilian credentials. Google recently expanded digital ID support in Google Wallet to Brazil, giving more users a mobile channel for holding and presenting identity information.

Verification is a separate layer from credential storage. Hopae’s service is meant for regulated financial services, mobility platforms, online gaming and other businesses that need to check a license remotely. The company says the workflow was designed around consent, data minimization and requirements in Brazil’s LGPD and the European Union’s GDPR, although customers remain responsible for configuring lawful use.

The launch also fits a broader shift toward using phone-held credentials across devices and services. Recent wallet updates have paired digital ID verification with cross-device biometric approval, reducing reliance on uploaded document images.

Hopae says CNH verification is available now and marks the start of a deeper push into Latin America. Its adoption will depend on how consistently the service can reach official records, handle older credentials and produce reliable face matches under real-world onboarding conditions.

Sources: Hopae

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team