Foreword As our world becomes increasingly digitized, the same holds innovative foundational digital wallet solutions, and importantly, the true for everyday assets. From money to credentials for identity, decision-making frameworks that solve common challenges and academic achievements or your driver’s license, information create shared value. is manifesting itself as digital tokens requiring secure and This report delves into the world of digital assets and the interoperable infrastructure as never before. Part of that opportunities created through digital wallet technologies and infrastructure is specific to custody; consequently, the development best practices, answering the question, “why open source?” The of secure wallet architecture is as vital as the development of the benefits have been leveraged across industries, in terms of faster digital assets themselves. time to market, lower total cost of ownership, and having access to Digital wallets will permeate all facets of society, at the innovation beyond the boundaries of the firm. They apply equally government, enterprise, and peer to peer level. Institutions of all in the context of digital wallet. We are convinced that open source kinds will face the need to issue, secure, trade, and store emerging can also play a vital role to democratize the wallet ecosystem. classes of digital assets, including Central Bank Digital Currency This report is a must-read for leaders who want to learn more (CBDC), securities, health and academic credentials to other types about open source best practices as they pertain to digital wallet of cryptoassets, with an aim to creating trusted digital marketplaces architecture, security and interoperability considerations, and the and increasingly trusted institutions. The digital wallet could outcomes that can emerge from multi stakeholder collaboration become the most important tool ever for asserting control and and innovation. Like the OpenWallet Foundation itself, this engendering trust in our digital lives. report is a valuable resource which we hope will inspire new and To date, the development of commercial digital wallets has often widespread understanding of the opportunities before us. been centralized, with a handful of technology conglomerates Daniel Goldscheider dominating the digital payments landscape. With the rise of Founder, OpenWallet Foundation open source as a framework for mass collaboration at scale, opportunities abound for collaboration in digital asset infrastructure like never before. These opportunities were central to the formation of the OpenWallet Foundation, which aims to be the organization of choice for mass collaboration on open source digital wallet technologies and best practices in governance. With the Foundation’s launch, enterprises, nonprofits and the public sector the world over can collaborate on the development of new and WHY THE WORLD NEEDS AN OPEN SOURCE DIGITAL WALLET RIGHT NOW 4