Linux Foundation Europe kondigt OpenWallet Foundation aan

Linux Foun­da­tion Europe heeft vandaag Open­Wallet Foun­da­tion (OWF) aange­kon­digd. Het doel van Open­Wallet Foun­da­tion is het geza­men­lijk ontwik­kelen van open source software ter onder­steu­ning van de inter­o­pe­ra­bi­li­teit van Digitale Wallets en van het brede scala aan gebruiks­mo­ge­lijk­heden daarvan zoals het doen van beta­lingen, bewijzen van iden­ti­teit en het aantonen van andere geva­li­deerde iden­ti­teits­ge­ge­vens zoals die over werk, opleiding, finan­ciële status en rechten – om vertrouwen in de digitale toekomst mogelijk te maken.

De OWF zal zelf geen digitale wallet lanceren en geen nieuwe stan­daarden en creden­tials creëren. In plaats daarvan is het het doel dat hun open source software engine de kern wordt die andere orga­ni­sa­ties en bedrijven gebruiken om hun eigen digitale wallets te ontwik­kelen. Het doel van OWF is gelijk­waar­dige func­ti­o­na­li­teit van de beste beschik­bare digitale wallets en inter­o­pe­ra­bi­li­teit te bieden met grote grens­over­schrij­dende projecten zoals de Digital Identity Wallet van de EU.

Hier is het volledige Engels­ta­lige persbericht:

Linux Foun­da­tion Europe, an inde­pen­dent trusted supporter and vendor-neutral home for open source projects in Europe, today announced the official formation of the Open­Wallet Foun­da­tion (OWF). This new, colla­bo­ra­tive effort will develop open source software to support inter­o­pe­ra­bi­lity for a wide range of wallet use cases, including making payments, proving identity, storing validated creden­tials such as employ­ment, education, financial standing, and entit­le­ments — to enable trust in the digital future.

Inaugural Premier members spon­so­ring the OWF include Accenture, Gen, Futurewei and Visa. General members spon­so­ring the foun­da­tion include American Express, Deutsche Telekom /​ T‑Systems, esatus AG, Fynbos, Hopae, IAMX, IDnow, IndyKite, Intesi Group, Ping Identity, Smart­Media Tech­no­lo­gies (SMT), Spruce and Swisscom.

Addi­ti­o­nally, 20 leading nonpro­fits and academic and govern­ment entities have joined the foun­da­tion, including Customer Commons, Decen­tra­lized Identity Foun­da­tion (DIF), Digital Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and Authen­ti­ca­tion Council of Canada (DIACC), Digital Dollar Project, Digital Identity New Zealand (DINZ), Digital Identity and Data Sove­reignty Asso­ci­a­tion (DIDAS), DizmeID Foun­da­tion (DIZME), Hyper­ledger Foun­da­tion, Infor­ma­tion Tech­no­lo­gies ics and Tele­ma­tics Institute /​ Centre for Research and Tech­no­logy Hellas (CERTH/​ITI), Johannes Kepler Univer­sity Linz, ID2020, IDunion SCE, Mifos Initi­a­tive, MIT Connec­tion Science, Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP), OpenID Foun­da­tion, Open Identity Exchange (OIX), Secure Identity Alliance (SIA), Univer­sitat Rovira i Virgili, and the Trust Over IP Foun­da­tion (ToIP).

The OWF will not publish a wallet itself, nor offer creden­tials or create new standards. Instead, its open source software engine aims to become the core that other orga­ni­za­tions and companies leverage to develop their own digital wallets. The wallets will seek feature parity with the best available wallets and inter­o­pe­ra­bi­lity with major cross-border projects such as the EU’s Digital Identity Wallet.

“Wallets are critical infra­struc­ture for payments, for identity, and for secure access. Open source – driven by colla­bo­ra­tion among for-profits large and small, non-profits, and govern­ment leaders – is a great role model for infra­struc­ture that is vital for digital societies and benefits everyone,” said Daniel Gold­scheider, Founder of the Open­Wallet Foun­da­tion. “With open source at the core of wallets, like it is at the core of web browsers, anyone can build a digital wallet that works with others and gives consumers the freedom to maintain their identity and veri­fiable creden­tials and share relevant data when, where, and with whom they choose.”

With such a conse­quen­tial and diverse group of members, OWF under­scores how important it is to have an open foun­da­tion to support a plurality of digital wallets to ensure consis­tency, inter­o­pe­ra­bi­lity, and porta­bi­lity while protec­ting consumer privacy.

“The world needs a place to store digital assets that matter, and the work of this foun­da­tion has the potential to redefine the creden­tials landscape globally, creating in turn much better digital expe­riences for people every­where and new market oppor­tu­ni­ties,” said Gabriele Columbro, general manager of Linux Foun­da­tion Europe. “The EU has been a leading force in data privacy and consumer protec­tion, and efforts like OWF offer a concrete oppor­tu­nity for policy makers to “shift left” their enga­ge­ment, enabling a conti­nuous and transpa­rent feedback cycle between regu­la­tions and regulated tech­no­logy. That’s why we are honored to bring such a relevant group of cross-industry players together in OWF under Linux Foun­da­tion Europe. ”

The OWF is the second project hosted by Linux Foun­da­tion Europe. Project Sylva was added in November 2022 to create an open source telco cloud software framework.

Launching in tandem with OWF is a new report, Why the World Needs an Open Source Digital Wallet Right Now, from the OWF in part­ner­ship with Linux Foun­da­tion Research. The report notes:

Digital wallets are the world’s leading payment method for e‑commerce and point-of-sale retail. In 2021, the value of digital wallet trans­ac­tions came to $15.9 trillion.

Hundreds of digital wallets exist, but suffer from a host of problems, including vendor lock in, no inter­o­pe­ra­bi­lity, ques­ti­o­nable security, and limited capabilities.

New wallets are underway, too, but without them all staying in sync, every country or orga­ni­za­tion that issues creden­tials could become a walled garden. IDs and wallets from elsewhere won’t work, disrup­ting travel, inter­na­ti­onal students, and mobile workforces.

The future will include multiple wallets, which is why we need a world-class wallet engine to ensure that inter­o­pe­ra­bi­lity is built in.

For more infor­ma­tion about the project and how to parti­ci­pate in this work, please visit: open​wallet​.foun​da​tion. Join Open Wallet Foun­da­tion members for a livestream and Q&A on February 23^rd, at 5:00 pm CEST/11:00 am ET. Register here.