Trust anchors are the authoritative sources that the EUDI Wallet ecosystem relies on to verify whether a credential, certificate, or identity claim can be trusted. They sit at the foundation of the entire trust framework, acting as the starting point for any chain of verification. Without recognized trust anchors, there would be no reliable way to confirm that a credential issued in one EU member state is genuinely trustworthy when presented in another.
For organizations preparing to issue or accept credentials through the European Digital Identity Wallet, understanding how trust anchors work is a practical requirement for building compliant and interoperable digital identity processes. The sections below answer the most common questions organizations have about trust anchors in the EUDI Wallet framework.
Who decides which trust anchors are recognized in the EUDI Wallet?
Recognized trust anchors in the EUDI Wallet framework are determined through a shared governance structure defined by eIDAS 2.0, which amends Regulation (EU) 910/2014 through Regulation (EU) 2024/1183. The European Commission manages the legal framework and adopts the implementing acts that contain the binding requirements. EU member states are responsible for providing or mandating wallet solutions, certifying and notifying them, and supervising actors within their own jurisdictions. This includes maintaining national trusted lists of qualified trust service providers (QTSPs) and other authorized entities whose certificates and attestations are considered valid within the ecosystem. The European Digital Identity Cooperation Group supports cross-border alignment and cooperation between member states.
This governance model builds on the existing eIDAS framework, which already required member states to publish and maintain national trusted lists. Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 extends that approach to include wallet providers, credential issuers, and relying parties, all of which must be verifiable through a common trust infrastructure. No single central European authority operationally manages all EUDI Wallets. Responsibility is distributed across the Commission, member states, national competent authorities, and the relevant regulated actors.
The Architecture and Reference Framework (ARF), developed by the eIDAS Expert Group, provides the technical elaboration of the requirements set out in the implementing acts. It defines how trust anchors are registered, published, and made discoverable across borders. This means that a trust anchor recognized in Germany can, in principle, be verified by a relying party in Portugal, because both operate within the same governed framework. In practice, the extent to which specific cross-border use cases are fully operational will depend on the pace of national rollout and certification in each member state.
For organizations in regulated sectors such as financial services or healthcare, this matters because it determines which credential issuers and verifiers you can rely on without additional verification steps.
How do trust anchors verify the authenticity of digital credentials?
Verifying a credential in the EUDI Wallet framework involves three distinct checks, not a single cryptographic operation. Understanding each one matters for organizations building compliant verification processes.
The first check is verification of the issuer’s signature against the relevant national trusted list. National trusted lists are brought together in the EU List of Trusted Lists (LOTL). When a credential is issued, the issuing party signs it using a private key. The corresponding public key, tied back to a recognized trust anchor on a national trusted list, allows any verifying party to confirm that the credential was genuinely issued by a trusted source and has not been altered since. This check can be performed fully offline.
The second check is the revocation status of the credential, using status information provided by the issuer. A credential that was valid at issuance may subsequently have been revoked. Relying parties must check this status separately. This check requires a connection to the issuer’s revocation service and cannot be performed offline.
The third check is the wallet unit attestation, which confirms that the wallet presenting the credential is running on a certified wallet solution. This check establishes that the presenting wallet meets the security requirements of the framework. It also requires a connection and cannot be performed fully offline.
Together, these three checks form the chain of trust. The credential issuer holds a certificate that was itself signed by a higher-level authority, ultimately traceable to a recognized trust anchor on a national trusted list. A relying party receiving a credential through the EUDI Wallet follows this chain to confirm legitimacy. It is therefore not accurate to say that a credential can be verified entirely without contact with external services. Only the issuer signature check can be completed offline.
This framework also supports selective disclosure, one of the key privacy features of the EUDI Wallet. A user can prove their age without revealing their date of birth, because the credential proof is tied to the trust anchor and the relevant attribute rather than to the full underlying data record. Selective disclosure does not require zero-knowledge proofs. It can be achieved through the attribute structures supported by the credential formats prescribed in the ARF, specifically mdoc and SD-JWT VC.
What happens when a trust anchor is revoked or expires?
When a trust anchor is revoked or expires, any credentials or attestations that depend on it become unverifiable. A relying party checking a credential against a revoked or expired trust anchor will receive a negative result, meaning the credential can no longer be accepted as valid. This makes trust anchor lifecycle management a critical operational concern for issuers and relying parties alike.
Revocation can happen for several reasons:
- A trust service provider loses its qualified status or has its accreditation withdrawn
- A cryptographic key is compromised or suspected of being compromised
- A member state updates its national trusted list following a regulatory or governance change
- A wallet provider or credential issuer no longer meets the requirements set out under eIDAS 2.0
The EUDI Wallet framework addresses this through mechanisms such as certificate revocation lists (CRLs) and Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) services, which allow relying parties to check whether a trust anchor is still valid. Wallet implementations are expected to perform these checks during credential presentation, so the end user does not need to manage this manually.
For organizations relying on credentials from external issuers, it is important to build processes that handle revocation gracefully. A credential that was valid yesterday may not be valid today if the underlying trust anchor has changed status. This is particularly relevant for organizations in government and healthcare, where the consequences of accepting an invalid credential can be significant.
How do trust anchors differ from traditional certificate authorities?
Trust anchors in the EUDI Wallet framework are related to traditional certificate authorities (CAs) but serve a broader and more governed role. A traditional CA issues digital certificates that enable secure communication, most commonly for websites using TLS. Trust anchors in the EUDI Wallet context go further: they anchor the trustworthiness of identity claims, attestations, and the entities involved in the entire identity ecosystem.
The key differences come down to governance, scope, and accountability:
- Governance: Traditional CAs operate under industry standards such as the CA/Browser Forum baseline requirements. EUDI Wallet trust anchors operate under a legally binding EU regulatory framework, with the European Commission adopting binding implementing acts and member states responsible for the accuracy of their national trusted lists and the supervision of actors within their jurisdiction.
- Scope: CAs primarily secure communication channels. Trust anchors in the EUDI Wallet ecosystem secure the identity and attribute claims of people, businesses, and devices.
- Accountability: Qualified trust service providers under eIDAS 2.0 are subject to supervisory oversight by national competent authorities. This creates a level of public accountability that goes beyond what commercial CAs typically face.
- Interoperability: EUDI Wallet trust anchors are designed for cross-border recognition across EU member states. A certified wallet from one member state can be used with an appropriate relying party in another member state, although the availability of specific use cases across borders will develop in phases as national rollout and certification progress. Traditional CAs are trusted globally by browser vendors but are not specifically designed for identity federation across national jurisdictions.
For organizations already familiar with PKI and certificate management, the EUDI Wallet trust infrastructure will feel conceptually familiar. The main adjustment is understanding that the governance layer is more structured, more legally accountable, and more specifically designed for identity use cases than traditional CA hierarchies.
What should organizations verify before relying on a trust anchor?
Before relying on a trust anchor in the EUDI Wallet ecosystem, organizations should confirm that it appears on the relevant national trusted list, that its status is currently active, and that it is appropriate for the specific use case. Not all trust anchors are equivalent. Some are qualified for high-assurance identity verification, while others may only be suitable for lower-assurance interactions.
A practical checklist for organizations includes the following:
- Trusted list inclusion: Confirm the trust anchor is listed on the official national trusted list of the relevant member state, and that the list is up to date. National trusted lists are brought together in the EU List of Trusted Lists (LOTL). Where relevant, also check any applicable List of Trusted Entities (LoTE).
- Current validity: Check that the trust anchor has not been revoked, suspended, or expired using the revocation mechanisms provided
- Assurance level: Verify that the trust anchor supports the level of assurance required for your use case, whether low, substantial, or high under eIDAS 2.0
- Scope of authorization: Confirm that the trust anchor is authorized for the type of credential or attestation you intend to accept, and distinguish between QEAA, PuB-EAA, and non-qualified EAA where relevant
- Cross-border recognition: If you are operating across multiple member states, verify that the trust anchor is recognized in the relevant jurisdictions and that the specific cross-border use case you require is operationally available. Not all use cases will be available in every member state at the same time.
- Relying party registration: Under CIR (EU) 2025/848 of 6 May 2025, a relying party must register with the national authority of its member state of establishment before requesting wallet data. Registration covers the intended uses and the specific attributes and attestations to be requested. The wallet checks incoming requests against this registered scope.
Organizations should also consider how they will automate these checks at scale. Manual verification is not practical in high-volume environments. Building integration with trusted list APIs and revocation services early in your implementation planning will save significant effort later.
For organizations still developing their understanding of the EUDI Wallet trust infrastructure, exploring available resources and guidance on the topic is a useful starting point before making implementation decisions.
How the ID Connector supports trust anchor management in the EUDI Wallet framework
The ID Connector is an integration that lets relying parties accept every certified European wallet, whatever Member State issued it, for identification, login and qualified signing. EUDI Wallet acceptance comes first; the same interface also carries other IDs, such as national eIDs, bank IDs and identity documents, inside and outside the EU.
In the context of trust anchors, the ID Connector handles the operational complexity that organizations face when verifying credentials at scale. This includes:
- Verification of issuer signatures against the relevant national trusted lists, using the EU List of Trusted Lists (LOTL) as the authoritative source
- Revocation status checks using the status information provided by the issuer
- Validation of wallet unit attestations to confirm that the presenting wallet runs on a certified wallet solution
- Monitoring of registered attribute scope to ensure that credential requests stay within the bounds registered under CIR (EU) 2025/848
- Support for credential formats prescribed by the ARF, including mdoc and SD-JWT VC
This applies across regulated sectors including financial services, healthcare, pharma, and government, where trust anchor verification is not optional and where the consequences of accepting an invalid credential are significant.
Get in touch with TrustTech to discuss how the ID Connector can be integrated into your credential verification processes.