The eIDAS 2.0 large-scale pilots are real-world testing programmes funded by the European Commission that put the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet through its paces across a range of everyday use cases, countries, and sectors before the wallet becomes widely available. Four major pilot consortia launched in 2023 and have been running across EU Member States ever since, collecting feedback that directly shapes the technical standards and deployment guidelines every organisation will eventually need to follow. The sections below answer the most common questions about how these pilots work and what they mean for your organisation.

Which large-scale pilots are running under eIDAS 2.0?

Four large-scale pilot (LSP) projects are currently running under eIDAS 2.0, each funded through the European Commission’s DIGITAL Europe Programme. The four consortia are POTENTIAL, EWC (European Wallet Consortium), DC4EU, and NOBID. Together they cover more than 25 EU Member States and bring together governments, banks, universities, healthcare providers, and technology companies to test the EUDI Wallet in genuine, cross-border situations.

Each consortium has a distinct focus area. POTENTIAL concentrates on a broad range of use cases spanning government services and private sector interactions. EWC focuses heavily on travel and financial services. DC4EU targets education and social security. NOBID, a Nordic-Baltic group that also includes Italy and Germany, is dedicated to payment use cases, testing how the EUDI Wallet can be used to verify identity when initiating domestic and cross-border payments.

All four pilots work from the same technical foundation: the Architecture and Reference Framework (ARF), which defines the common specifications that wallet solutions across Europe must meet. The feedback gathered by the pilots feeds directly back into refining those specifications, making the pilots as much a standards-development exercise as a product test.

What use cases are the pilots actually testing?

The eIDAS 2.0 pilots are testing a wide range of real-life scenarios where people need to prove who they are or share verified information securely. The use cases span both public and private sector interactions, and many involve cross-border situations where a citizen from one Member State needs to be recognised in another.

Some of the most prominent use cases being tested include:

• Mobile driving licence: Presenting a digital driving licence during a roadside check or when renting a vehicle online
• Education credentials: Sharing verified diplomas, degrees, and certificates when applying for jobs or further study
• Payments: Verifying identity when initiating an online payment, reducing fraud without adding friction
• Travel documents: Presenting passport or visa information at airport security and border crossings
• Prescription claims: Sharing prescription details with a pharmacy to initiate the dispensing of medication
• Social security access: Accessing benefits and storing documents such as the European Health Insurance Card
• Organisational identity: Proving that an individual is a legitimate representative of a company
• Contract signing: Creating qualified digital signatures to sign contracts without paper

These use cases were not chosen at random. They represent the interactions that citizens and businesses encounter most frequently, and where fragmented or insecure identity verification causes the most friction. By testing them under real conditions, the pilots generate the kind of evidence that regulators and standards bodies need to make the final technical specifications practical and robust.

How does a user interact with the EUDI Wallet during a pilot?

During a pilot, a user interacts with the EUDI Wallet through a smartphone application that stores verified digital documents and allows the user to share specific attributes with a requesting party. The experience is designed to be simple: the user receives a request, reviews exactly what information is being asked for, and approves or declines the share with a single action.

Here is how a typical pilot interaction works in practice:

1. Wallet setup: The user downloads a wallet app provided by a participating Member State or an officially recognised private provider and completes an identity verification process to link their national identity to the wallet.
2. Credential issuance: Verified documents, such as a driving licence or university diploma, are issued into the wallet by a trusted source such as a government authority or educational institution.
3. Presentation request: A relying party, for example an employer, a bank, or a border control system, sends a request for specific attributes.
4. Selective disclosure: The user sees exactly which data points are being requested and chooses to share only what is necessary, for example confirming they are over 18 without revealing their exact date of birth.
5. Verification: The relying party receives cryptographically verified data that they can trust, without needing to contact the original issuer directly.

This selective disclosure model is one of the most important privacy features of the EUDI Wallet. Unlike a physical passport or ID card, which reveals far more information than is often needed, the wallet lets users share the minimum necessary. This reduces the risk of personal profiling and gives users genuine control over their own data.

Who is responsible for running and governing the pilots?

The large-scale pilots are funded and overseen by the European Commission through the DIGITAL Europe Programme, but the day-to-day running is managed by the pilot consortia themselves. Each consortium is led by a coordinating organisation and includes a mix of public bodies, private companies, and research institutions from multiple Member States.

Governance works on several levels. At the EU level, the Commission monitors progress, collects findings, and uses them to refine the Architecture and Reference Framework. At the consortium level, members collaborate on technical implementation, user testing, and reporting. At the national level, participating Member States contribute their own identity infrastructure and regulatory context to ensure the pilots reflect real deployment conditions.

The Commission also provides a reference implementation of the EUDI Wallet, an open-source prototype that serves as a testing ground for the technical specifications. This prototype is available publicly, which means Member States and private parties can build on it when developing their own wallet solutions. The open-source approach is deliberate: it lowers the barrier to participation and ensures that the standards developed through the pilots are accessible to everyone who needs to implement them.

What do the pilot results mean for organisations preparing for eIDAS 2.0?

The pilot results are directly shaping the final technical and regulatory requirements that all organisations will need to meet under eIDAS 2.0. For businesses and public sector bodies that will act as relying parties, meaning organisations that request and verify identity data from EUDI Wallets, the pilot findings are the clearest signal available about what real-world implementation looks like.

Several practical implications stand out for organisations that are starting to prepare:

• Technical integration: The pilots confirm that relying parties need to build or adapt systems to send standardised presentation requests and process cryptographically verified responses. This is different from traditional identity verification flows.
• Sector-specific requirements: Use cases in finance, healthcare, and government each carry their own regulatory overlay. The pilots are generating sector-specific guidance that organisations in those industries should monitor closely.
• User experience expectations: Pilot feedback consistently highlights that users expect fast, frictionless interactions. Organisations that design clunky or over-reaching data requests will see drop-off.
• Cross-border readiness: The pilots demonstrate that wallets issued in one Member State must be recognised in others. Organisations operating across borders need to plan for interoperability from the start.

With Member States legally required to provide EUDI Wallets to all citizens, residents, and businesses, the transition from pilot to live deployment is well underway in 2026. Organisations that wait for full regulatory certainty before starting their preparations risk falling behind. The pilot results provide enough clarity now to begin assessing gaps, defining integration requirements, and building internal knowledge.

For organisations in sectors such as financial services, government, and healthcare, the stakes are particularly high because identity verification sits at the core of their operations. Starting with a structured assessment of current infrastructure against the emerging eIDAS 2.0 requirements is the most effective first step.

How TrustTech helps organisations navigate the eIDAS 2.0 large-scale pilots

Understanding the eIDAS 2.0 pilots is one thing; translating their outcomes into concrete action for your organisation is another. TrustTech is built specifically to help organisations bridge that gap. Whether you are still assessing your readiness or actively building your integration with the EUDI Wallet ecosystem, our solutions cover every step of the process.

Here is what TrustTech brings to your eIDAS 2.0 preparation:

• Identity verification and onboarding: Secure, wallet-ready identity proofing that meets the highest eIDAS assurance levels, reducing onboarding time and drop-off rates
• Reusable compliance: Once a customer or partner is verified, that verification can be reused across your organisation and beyond, eliminating repeated checks
• Qualified digital signatures: Identity-linked signing that creates a complete, auditable record for every contract, consent, or approval
• Cross-sector interoperability: Infrastructure designed to work across finance, government, healthcare, and other regulated sectors, aligned with the Common Toolbox specifications emerging from the pilots
• EU compliance by design: Every service TrustTech delivers is built around GDPR, eIDAS 2.0, and sector-specific regulatory requirements from the ground up

TrustTech sits between the parties that need to interact, providing trusted infrastructure without owning any of them. That independence is what makes secure, scalable, and privacy-respecting digital identity possible at scale. Ready to take the next step? Get in touch with TrustTech to discuss how your organisation can prepare for the EUDI Wallet and the broader eIDAS 2.0 transition.