Who Will Own Identity Verification?

One of the issues that was discussed at the recent Optical and Digital Document Security (ODDS) conference in Prague was the future of personal identity. Once considered part of the critical infrastructure of a nation and thus the preserve of central governments, we are now in the unprecedented situation that competition is emerging for the ownership of identity verification because of the financial rewards this could bring.

The trigger for the emergence of this competition is the rapid rise in the use of digital identity. In part it was stimulated by the pandemic and the need to remotely verify identity, but also in the emergence of competition from tech industry players. The end result is that we now find ourselves in an increasingly crowded and competitive landscape.