FIDES Plugfest #1 was a success
FIDES and Findynet are happy with the plugfest event organized in Amsterdam on November 7th, 2024. Various wallet providers demonstrated interoperability in three use cases.
FIDES Plugfest #1 – Digital Wallets in Action was an opportunity for technology providers to test and demonstrate the interoperability of their solutions. FIDES organized the two main tracks: Trusted Webshops and Trusted Skills. In addition, Findynet organized a Discount Eligibility track
All participating wallet providers demonstrated successful interoperability on at least one track.
“We’re happy to see that it is possible to achieve interoperability between different systems,” says Harmen van der Kooij, Co-initiator of FIDES, “but we also acknowledge that we’re not in a stage where support for same protocols automatically ensures interoperability.”
Findynet CTO Samuel Rinnetmäki is also happy with the results: “We learned a lot from the participating wallet providers. We already improved our demo infrastructure during the plugfest and will share our findings with the agent providers so that they can react to the issues raised by wallet providers.”
In the Trusted Webshops track – organized in collaboration with the Dutch Tax Authority, Dutch Chamber of Commerce, Thuiswinkel.org, Zonweringstunter.nl, Decathlon, DeOnlineDrogist, Impierce Technologies, Webkracht, Credenco – the wallet providers showed how an online shop provider and a customer could establish mutual trust by exchanging verifiable credentials containing their basic information.
Trusted Skills – in cooperation with Skills Embassy, SURF, Ministry of Defence, Impierce Technologies Salta Group, NCOI, EVC Nederland, 8Vance and BrainsFirst and Sphereon – included a multi-phase journey in which a person acquired and displayed verifiable credentials about various skills.
The Discount Eligibility track – using the demo infrastructure set up with the Finnish Social Security Institute, Helsinki Region Transport, Animo, Lissi, SICPA, and walt.id – was about a retired person proving their eligibility for discounted tickets in public transport. An optional challenge for wallet providers was demonstrating how a wallet could use the OpenID Federation protocol to support the wallet holder’s trust decisions.
The infrastructure used in the plugfest will also be available after the event as part of the FIDES Open Sandbox. All wallet providers are encouraged to test their wallets against all available issuer and verifier agents and report the results to FIDES.
Niels Klomp, CTO of Sphereon, one of the participating wallet providers: “We enjoyed participating in the plugfest. It allowed us to improve the interoperability of our wallet with other solutions. It was also an opportunity for us to explore ways to support trust frameworks based on the OpenID Federation protocol in our wallet.”
FIDES and Findynet will continue close collaboration to enhance online trust by accelerating the adoption of verifiable credentials and digital wallets. The next steps include the Open Sandbox and an interoperability testbed. We will ensure that our work is aligned with the activities in the Wallet Overview and Wallet Interoperability Special Interest Groups of the OpenWallet Foundation.