But who’s coordinating all these projects? We’ve been here before Somehow, all these projects must stay in sync. Otherwise, every Twenty-five years ago, early-stage web browsers were country or organization that issues credentials could become a incompatible and non-standardized. This threatened to derail the walled garden where IDs and wallets from elsewhere don’t work. web. That threat brought everyone to the table to adopt a core set Imagine how that would disrupt travel and tourism, international of standards that ensured interoperability and helped the web to students, and mobile workforces. flourish. Coordinating all these projects is a huge challenge that no one is Today, everyone routinely uses a browser to access the web— doing. But it points to a likely solution: an open source wallet engine but we’re free to switch between browsers anytime we like. Open that promotes interoperability around the world. source browser engines, such as Blink, Gecko, and WebKit, give “Right now, we all have a common problem: consistent, compliant, developers a quick start on their own projects. and secure access to products and services,” says Juliana Cafik, a The parallel is striking. principal standards architect with the identity standards team at Microsoft. Digital wallets are becoming the interface to our entire digital “An open wallet can provide a common core that enables lives. But today’s early-stage wallets are incompatible and interoperable, compliant, and secure exchanges that align with non-standardized. It’s time for everyone to come to the table to trust frameworks for policy and governance. This is a practical create a core engine that adopts a set of standards with built-in opportunity to come together in an open source community to interoperability to help our digital world flourish. 20 create the foundational components for wallets.” Yesterday, we made the right choice. Many organizations worked No one expects a future where one digital wallet reigns supreme together to unleash a monumental wave of innovation on the web. as a “super app” that does all things for all people. Instead, we will Today, we must do that again. Many organizations must work likely have several wallets, each doing a few things better or faster together to unleash a new wave of innovation in digital wallets. or cheaper, or simply in a way that appeals to us. “We see a future where we’ll still have multiple wallets,” says Tomorrow, we can look back in pride at what we achieved, knowing Drummond Reed, director of trust services at Gen Digital and a that the creation of open wallets was a major milestone in the digital ID pioneer and author. “That’s why we need a world-class history of technology that benefited everyone. 21 wallet engine to ensure that interoperability is built in.” WHY THE WORLD NEEDS AN OPEN SOURCE DIGITAL WALLET RIGHT NOW 10