United Kingdom
The Government Digital Service (GDS) is to hand over responsibility for the government’s new digital identity scheme to Cabinet Office.
The scheme, announced by prime minister Keir Starmer in September 2025, will introduce a digital ID for all UK citizens and legal residents.
In a ministerial statement, prime minister Keir Starmer said that to “deliver this cross-government priority”, the Cabinet Office will now oversee the scheme, “including policy, development, legislation and strategic oversight”.
GDS, which sits under the Department for Science, Technology and Innovation (DSIT), and its technology minister Liz Kendall, will still be responsible for the design and build of the digital identity service, reports Computer Weekly.
Some DSIT policy staff are expected to move to Cabinet Office as part of the transition, and a small number of specialist roles may be seconded to the department if needed, Computer Weekly understands.
While losing the overall digital ID programme to Cabinet Office, GDS will remain responsible for the Gov.uk One Login digital identity platform, as well as Gov.uk Wallet, which sits separate from the new programme.
Europe
Signicat is participating in Aptitude, one of the European Commission’s new Large-Scale Pilots (LSPs) for the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW). Aptitude officially launched last week and will run for two years, testing real-world use cases of the EUDI Wallet across payments, mobility and cross-border travel.
In addition to Aptitude, Signicat is also contributing to WE BUILD, another LSP already underway.
The Aptitude consortium brings together more than 110 organisations from over 15 European countries, including public administrations, service providers, and industry leaders. The project aims to advance interoperability, usability and privacy for European citizens using digital wallets in everyday cross-border scenarios.
Signicat joins Aptitude following its acquisition of Inverid in July 2025. Inverid, known for its identity verification technology ReadID, was originally selected as a participant in the Aptitude consortium. Following the acquisition, Signicat now continues that role, bringing its experience in digital identity and EUDI wallets, with its participation in WE BUILD, launched early this year, and in the previous round of Large Scale Pilors (EWC and NOBID).
Australia
FrankieOne and MATTR announced a partnership to make standards-backed verifiable digital credentials available within FrankieOne’s identity and compliance orchestration platform – placing cryptographic proof directly into the risk decisioning flows enterprises already use.
The collaboration embeds MATTR’s digital trust technology into FrankieOne’s identity orchestration platform, enabling organisations to verify customers with greater assurance and privacy. Through this integration, enterprises can accept emerging credentials such as mobile Driver’s Licences (mDLs). These digital credentials, which conform to ISO 18013-5 and -7 standards, provide privacy-preserving verification while working alongside existing data sources and risk signals.
Global
Yubico has presented new Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) prototypes alongside expanded digital identity features.
Yubico showed how passkeys can be utilised for not only securely logging into systems but also for signing and authorising other sensitive digital operations via a YubiKey inside a standards-based digital wallet.
The company highlighted three key benefits of the extended passkey solution: increased flexibility for developers building high-assurance experiences, a familiar and simple user experience requiring no changes in user habits, and stronger privacy by keeping sensitive operations physically anchored to a device controlled by the user.
Yubico’s co-founder, Stina Ehrensvärd, has described how passkeys and verifiable credentials work best together, rather than as competing solutions. Yubico is involved in a collaboration with Sunet, GUNet, SURF, and the SIROS Foundation to enhance wwWallet, a digital identity wallet for the web which is enabled for passkey usage, as per IT Brief.
Albania
Albania has announced plans to launch a national digital ID system by the beginning of 2026. The intention is to align the non-EU nation with the bloc’s technological and regulatory standards, explicitly aiming to get ahead of the European Union’s own timeline for its digital wallet.
During a presentation of the project, Prime Minister Edi Rama framed the digital ID as a cornerstone of the “Albania 2030” national strategy. He highlighted that the launch would put Albania “one step ahead” of the EU, which has set a 2027 target for member states to issue European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallets under the eIDAS 2.0 framework.
The implementation will be handled by IdentiTek, a state-owned company that operates under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. IdentiTek took over the country’s ID document contract in 2023, inheriting a long-standing partnership with French biometrics giant Idemia.
Global
Prove has announced the launch of Prove Verified Agent, a solution designed to secure the emerging $1.7 trillion agentic commerce market. The Prove Verified Agent solution provides a trust and verification layer for autonomous agents acting on behalf of consumers and businesses, creating an end-to-end chain of custody that links verified identity, intent, payment credentials, and consent, backed by cryptographic proof.
Analysts estimate that agentic commerce and generative-AI features could add more than $1 trillion in annual economic value globally. Yet Prove said today’s four-party payment model was never designed for agents acting independently of people. Agentic commerce cannot scale on yesterday’s identity rails. It requires “a new trust framework built on verified, tokenised identity and credential issuance. The Prove Verified Agent solution closes that gap by establishing a frontier identity framework that allows trusted agents to transact safely across networks.”
Vietnam
Vietnam is targeting 100 percent digital ID and government service access by 2026.
According to government data, 80 percent of public services are now fully digitised, the digital economy contributes nearly 20 percent to GDP, and hundreds of thousands of public servants have received digital skills training. A nationwide grassroots digital technology network has also been established.
United States
The US Treasury Department has initiated a formal public consultation regarding the mandatory integration of digital identity verification directly into decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms. This proactive regulatory push is intended to combat money laundering and illicit finance within the cryptocurrency market.
The proposal seeks feedback on how digital identity tools, including government IDs and biometrics, could automatically verify users before they are permitted to complete transactions. This strategy is rooted in the GENIUS Act, signed into law in July, which mandates the establishment of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) safeguards directly into the foundational smart contract infrastructure of the blockchain.
