A new database mapping government-affiliated digital identity projects worldwide is now available.
The Web of Trust map from Swiss venture capital syndicate Key State Capital offers visibility into how digital ID initiatives are interconnected globally.
The open-source dataset offers insight into the projects, consortia, and individuals shaping the decentralised digital identity space, highlighting their connections, technology stacks, and protocols, offering a view of the ecosystem’s growth.
It comprises 3,919 private entities, 4,031 individuals, 1,065 public entities, 275 decentralised identity projects, 177 blockchains and 40 consortia.
The research identified 1181 public entities in 105 countries working with projects that self-assess as self-sovereign identity projects.
The map shows that 59 percent of countries are developing both decentralised and centralised ID, 24 percent are developing only centralised IDs, while only 18 percent of countries are not developing digital IDs at all. None of them, however, are focusing only on decentralised ID.
Growth of the digital ID services worldwide
Since 2015, 98 countries have announced plans to create national digital ID systems.
In April 2024, the United Nations announced that it was creating UN Digital ID in an attempt to make a universally interoperable global digital identity framework. One month later, the European Union passed eIDAS 2.0, a standardised framework for digital identity management.
Many countries have already launched digital ID systems. India launched Aadhaar, Australia launched the Government Digital ID System, the UAE launched UAE PASS. The UK government’s digital identity system is GOV.UK OneLogin.
However, Key State Capital noted that poorly implemented digital ID systems have already caused billions of dollars in damage to individuals and governments. It cited the 2017 roll out of Aadhaar in India, which is the world’s most extensive digital ID system with over a billion active users. However, Aadhaar was built using a centralised platform which the company said failed to properly segregate access.
“Within just two years, Aadhaar user data was leaked, resulting in the largest data breach in world history. Similar but smaller breaches have already been reported with the digital ID systems in countries such as Turkey and Switzerland,” it said in a release.
The company went on to note that despite challenges, governments continue to move forward with the rollout of digital ID.
In 2018, the EU mandated the creation of the EU Digital Identity Wallet and will require all EU member states to implement local versions by 2026. Around the same time, China began small-scale local trials of its “social credit system.” Countries such as Brazil, the UAE and the United States are now all rolling out similar systems albeit at different paces.
