[vc_row columns=”1″][vc_column link=”%7B%22url%22%3A%22%22%7D”][vc_column_text]
If cross-border digital credentials are inevitable, the following will need to be in place.
1) Mutual recognition, building trust between systems
Countries need mechanisms to recognise each other’s approaches to assurance and certification. OfDIA’s work sits in that direction, and the survey shows industry appetite for the government to help unblock barriers.
The European Union’s eIDAS regulation offers one regional example of an interoperability framework designed to enable recognition across member states of the European Union.
2) Standards, choosing the “shared language”
A lot of the future depends on whether common standards become normal in real deployments. For example:
- W3C Verifiable Credentials provides a data model for expressing credentials in a way that is cryptographically secure.
- ISO standards such as ISO/IEC 18013-5 define how mobile driving licences can be presented and verified, including in cross-border contexts.
3) Public-private collaboration
The UK’s consultation approach signals an important shift: Governments cannot design international digital identity systems alone.
Private sector providers build the infrastructure, manage operational risk and understand cross-border commercial use cases.
Governments define assurance requirements, establish regulatory clarity and create the legal basis for trust.
Neither can succeed without the other.
A realistic path forward
The survey suggests two levers that would remove the most friction: progress on mutual recognition of trust frameworks, and clearer adoption of shared technical standards. Everything else becomes easier once those two align.
Rather than a single universal solution, adoption is likely to spread through:
- Sector pilots (finance, travel, education)
- Regional clusters
- Gradual expansion of trust and recognition
That matters because it sets expectations. The question is not “when will a global wallet arrive”, it is “which ecosystems will become trusted first, and what standards will they use”.
This is part 3 of a mini series on the future of cross-border digital credentials:
- Read part 1 – Why cross border digital identity matters in 2026
- Read part 2 – The barriers to global interoperability
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column link=”%7B%22url%22%3A%22%22%7D”][us_separator link=”%7B%22url%22%3A%22%22%7D” show_line=”1″ thick=”2″ css=”%7B%22default%22%3A%7B%22height%22%3A%2250px%22%7D%7D”][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]