Major Tech Firms Join Germany’s EUDI Wallet Project

Five nonfunded companies have joined Germany’s digital wallet Proof of Concept challenge, including Google and Samsung.

The project is being overseen by SPRIND – Bundesagentur für Sprunginnovationen, Germany’s Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation. Dubbed a SPRIND “Funke” – a German word meaning “spark” in the sense of creative thinking – the project is meant to foster the development of competing prototypes for a universally applicable “European Digital Identity Wallet” in Germany.

The overarching EUDI Wallet project is a significant initiative aimed at creating a secure, interoperable digital identity system for EU citizens. Launched under the eIDAS 2.0 regulation, the EUDI Wallet allows users to store and share their digital identity data across various use cases, such as travel, healthcare, banking, and education, facilitating seamless cross-border and domestic transactions.

The German project will unfold over the course of 13 months and will have three stages, with SPRIND supporting six teams in stage one, up to four teams in stage two, and up to two teams in stage three. Funding of up to €300,000 is available for the teams in stage one, with another €300,000 set aside for stage two participants, and an additional €350,000 unlocked in stage three.

The teams that will participate in this funded track include Animo, Ubique Innovation AG, Sphereon, Governikus, TICE, and AUTHADA. But there is also a nonfunded track that comprises teams that won’t receive SPRIND euros but will still be able to benefit from its network and work on their own digital wallet solutions for consideration by the SPRIND Funke jury.

These nonfunded teams include a Google group working on an Android-based EUDI wallet, a Samsung team working on their own counterpart, a team working on a “Lissi ID-Wallet,” and a Kaprion team developing its own “IdealWALLET.” A fifth team, comprising experts from Yubico, Sunet, and GUnet, is working on an open-source, web-based “wwWallet.”

Biometrics companies are playing a notable role in the broader EUDI Wallet initiative. For instance, iProov is part of a multi-country consortium focused on launching a pan-European payments pilot for the EUDI Wallet. The consortium, under the flag of the “Nordic-Baltic eID Project” (NOBID), includes technology partners like Thales, Signicat, and others from Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, and Norway. The consortium’s pilot aims to create secure and efficient digital payments, potentially using iProov’s face biometric authentication technology for secure onboarding and transaction authentication.

In the SPRIND Funke porject, the non-funding track teams won’t have to publish the source code of their projects but will need to share it with the SPRIND Funke jury. And they must meet the same requirements and assessment criteria as those teams participating in the funded track.

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June 6, 2024 – by Cass Kennedy and Alex Perala