The EU Digital Identity Wallet is a smartphone app that lets European citizens and residents store, manage, and share verified personal data digitally — such as a national ID, driving licence, or professional qualifications — without needing to carry physical documents or repeat identity checks from scratch. Governed by the updated eIDAS 2.0 regulation, every EU member state is required to offer citizens access to a wallet by 2026. The sections below answer the most common questions about how the EUDI Wallet works, what it stores, who is involved, and what organizations need to do to get ready.

What can you actually do with the EU Digital Identity Wallet?

The European Digital Identity Wallet lets you prove who you are, share specific personal attributes, sign documents electronically, and access public and private services online — all from your phone, without handing over more information than necessary. Think of it as a secure, digital version of your physical wallet, but smarter about what it reveals.

In practical terms, the EUDI Wallet covers a wide range of everyday situations:

• Logging in to government portals or healthcare services without a separate username and password
• Proving your age on an online platform without sharing your full date of birth
• Opening a bank account or completing KYC checks without sending physical copies of documents
• Sharing a verified professional qualification with a new employer
• Signing contracts and forms with a qualified electronic signature
• Accessing cross-border services across EU member states using a single digital identity

The wallet is designed to work for both public and private sector interactions. Whether you are booking a GP appointment, registering a business, or applying for a loan, the wallet can streamline the process by providing verified data instantly and securely.

What data does the EU Digital Identity Wallet store and share?

The EU Digital Identity Wallet stores verified digital credentials — structured data packages that have been issued and cryptographically signed by a trusted authority. These credentials can include a national identity document, driving licence, diplomas, professional licences, health insurance information, and other official records. The wallet does not store raw documents; it stores verifiable, machine-readable attestations of facts about you.

Importantly, the wallet only shares what is strictly necessary for a given transaction. This principle is called selective disclosure. If a service only needs to know that you are over 18, the wallet shares that single confirmation — not your full name, address, or date of birth. This is a significant step forward compared to handing over a passport or ID card, which reveals far more information than most situations actually require.

Data is stored locally on the user’s device rather than in a central database. This means there is no single point of failure and no third party continuously monitoring your activity. The user remains in control of their own data at all times.

Who issues and verifies credentials in the EUDI Wallet?

Credentials in the EUDI Wallet are issued by trusted entities called Attestation Providers, and they are verified by Relying Parties — the organizations or services that accept the wallet as proof of identity or qualification. Governments, public institutions, banks, universities, and licensed professional bodies can all act as issuers, depending on the type of credential.

Attestation Providers

An Attestation Provider is any organization authorized to issue a verified credential into the wallet. A national government, for example, issues the Person Identification Data (PID) — the core identity credential. Other issuers might include a national driving authority issuing a digital driving licence, or a university issuing a verified diploma. Each credential is cryptographically signed so its authenticity can be checked without contacting the issuer every time.

Relying Parties

A Relying Party is any organization that requests and accepts credentials from the wallet to verify a user’s identity or attributes. Banks, insurers, healthcare providers, and government agencies are all potential Relying Parties. Under eIDAS 2.0, certain categories of Relying Parties — particularly those providing services that legally require strong identity verification — are obliged to accept the EUDI Wallet. The trust framework that governs who can issue and who can accept credentials is maintained through national and European trust lists, ensuring that only legitimate parties participate in the ecosystem.

How does the EUDI Wallet protect user privacy?

The EUDI Wallet is built around privacy by design. It protects user privacy through selective disclosure, local data storage, cryptographic verification, and strict limitations on tracking. These features work together to ensure that users share only what is needed, with whom they choose, and without creating a trail that third parties can follow.

Selective disclosure means the wallet can present a single attribute — such as proof of age or nationality — without revealing the full underlying document. Cryptographic techniques make it possible to prove a fact is true without exposing the raw data behind it. This is sometimes called a zero-knowledge approach.

Because credentials are stored on the user’s device and verified locally, there is no central registry tracking which services a person has accessed or when. Issuers cannot see where their credentials are being used after they have been issued. This unlinkability is a deliberate design choice to prevent profiling and surveillance, and it is one of the strongest privacy guarantees built into the EUDI Wallet architecture.

Which organizations are required to accept the EU Digital Identity Wallet?

Under eIDAS 2.0, certain categories of organizations across the EU are legally required to accept the EUDI Wallet as a valid means of identity verification. The obligation applies to large online platforms, public sector bodies, and specific regulated sectors where identity verification is already a legal requirement — including banking, financial services, telecoms, and transport.

More specifically, organizations that are currently required to perform strong identity verification under existing EU law — such as banks under AML and KYC regulations, or healthcare providers under national health data rules — will be required to accept wallet-based credentials as a compliant method of meeting those obligations. Very large online platforms designated under the Digital Services Act are also included in the mandatory acceptance scope.

For organizations outside these mandatory categories, accepting the EUDI Wallet is optional but increasingly likely to become a competitive advantage. As wallet adoption grows and users expect frictionless, reusable identity verification, organizations that integrate wallet support early will be better positioned than those that wait.

How should organizations prepare for the EUDI Wallet rollout?

Organizations should start preparing for the EUDI Wallet now by assessing their current identity verification processes, understanding their regulatory obligations under eIDAS 2.0, and identifying where wallet-based credentials can replace or improve existing workflows. Waiting until full deployment is complete will leave organizations scrambling to catch up in a compressed timeframe.

A practical preparation approach involves the following steps:

1. Map your identity touchpoints. Identify every point in your customer or employee journey where identity is verified, documents are collected, or authentication is required.
2. Assess your regulatory obligations. Determine whether your organization falls within the mandatory acceptance scope under eIDAS 2.0, and which existing compliance requirements (KYC, AML, PSD2) the wallet can help fulfil.
3. Evaluate your technical infrastructure. Check whether your current systems can support verifiable credentials and OpenID4VP — the protocol used for wallet-based identity presentation.
4. Define your Relying Party role. Decide which credentials you need to accept, what attributes you require, and how credential verification will integrate into your onboarding or authentication flows.
5. Plan for governance and data minimization. Review your data handling practices to align with the selective disclosure model — requesting only the data you genuinely need for each interaction.

Organizations in financial services and government face the most immediate obligations and should prioritize readiness planning for 2026. Those in healthcare and other regulated sectors should also begin reviewing how wallet-based identity verification aligns with their existing compliance frameworks. A clear internal roadmap — covering both technical integration and process redesign — will make the transition significantly smoother.

How TrustTech helps organizations prepare for the EU Digital Identity Wallet

Navigating the EUDI Wallet rollout involves more than just updating a login screen. It requires a clear understanding of eIDAS 2.0 obligations, the right technical architecture, and a compliance framework that holds up across sectors and borders. That is exactly where TrustTech comes in.

TrustTech supports organizations at every stage of their digital identity transition:

• Regulatory readiness: Translating eIDAS 2.0 requirements into concrete actions for your organization’s specific sector and use cases
• Technical integration: Connecting your existing systems to verifiable credential infrastructure and wallet-compatible protocols
• Reusable compliance: Building onboarding and verification flows that satisfy KYC, AML, and identity requirements in one step — and reuse that verified data across your organization
• Qualified electronic signatures: Linking identity to every document signature and consent, with a complete audit trail
• Sector-specific expertise: Practical implementation knowledge for finance, government, healthcare, and other regulated industries

Whether you are just starting to map your identity touchpoints or already working on a Relying Party integration, TrustTech provides the expertise and platform to move forward with confidence. Explore our identity solutions or get in touch with our team to discuss what the EUDI Wallet means for your organization.