Taiwan is set to launch a national digital wallet that will hold its citizens’ digital ID, certificates, licenses and other personally identifiable information by the end of 2025.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs revealed this week that the new wallet will contain citizens’ digitized identification, national health insurance information, certificates of professional skills, business certificates, driving licenses and more.
The East Asian nation says the new digital wallet can be used for identity verification in private and public sector institutions. Financial institutions, such as banks and insurance firms, have welcomed the initiative, which they say will ease the resources and time they allocate to identity verification.
Speaking to local media outlets, Chuang Ying-chih, the director-general of the Department of Digital Cooperation at the ministry, revealed that the wallet will be launched in a sandbox environment in March. The full launch is scheduled for December.
Taiwan intends to make the wallet’s code public to boost trust and get the citizens’ input in promoting security, Ying-chih revealed.
“This would let the public know two things: first, the operation of the digital wallet does not violate human rights; second, disclosing the program code would allow the public to test and identify problems with the digital wallet and make it safer to use,” he stated.
Taiwan joins dozens of other countries transitioning toward digital IDs as the foundation of the burgeoning global digital economy. Across Europe, countries such as Liechtenstein, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland have led in digital ID integrations, while Singapore, South Korea, and Japan have made massive strides in Asia in recent years.
However, India is the undisputed regional leader in Asia, with its Aadhaar biometric digital identity system covering over 1.3 billion people, making it the largest of its kind globally. This strong digital ID system has led to rapid growth of the country’s digital economy, which is projected to account for 20% of India’s $3.5 trillion economy by 2030.
The most recent trend has been the convergence of digital identity and payments. Several governments and private institutions are exploring using a single digital wallet for both payments and identity, which would boost adoption and ease the use of it by consumers.
A recent whitepaper by payments giant Visa (NASDAQ: V), titled Digital Identity and Payments, captured this convergence.
“As payments support the uptake of digital identity, and digital identity further improves payments user experiences, security and efficiency, a virtuous cycle can be created,” the paper states.
Digital identity also lays the foundation for Web3 adoption and true data ownership in the digital age, says nChain CIO Christine Leong.
“The only way you can own and manage your data is with a robust digital identity,” she told CoinGeek.
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