INATBA Launches Task Force to Drive the Future of Digital Credentials!
This initiative will address mutual support, privacy, self-sovereignty, and interoperability for digital credentials across borders providing a clear vision for the road ahead.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — March 15, 2023 — The International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) is proud to announce the launch of a Task Force dedicated to Digital Credentials and their massive potential for citizens, governments and businesses worldwide. Spearheaded by INATBA’s Governmental Advisory Body – with 4 co-chairs, including Antonio Matias Gil (To Be Blockchain), Paul Jackson (Government of Canada, Chair of INATBA’s Governmental Advisory Body), Prof Lisa Short (SARChi, Tshwane University of Technology, member of INATBA’s Academic Advisory Body) and Kai Wagner (Jolocom, INATBA Board member), the Task Force will help pave the way for a new era of digital credentials.
Trust is key in the digital global economy. Governments and other organizations are trusted anchors, enabling trust by issuing digital credentials needed for transactions across economies and societies. These credentials in turn serve as the foundation on which everyday services and transactions depend. It remains a challenge to provide secure and private digital credentials that are easy to use in online transactions across economies and societies while still preventing fraud and avoiding costly and time-consuming processes.
The Task Force will build upon the recommendations from the Report on the workshop series for enabling interoperability and mutual support for digital credentials, conducted by the Governmental Advisory Body of INATBA in 2022, with the objectives to:
- Facilitate interoperability and mutual support across borders;
- Guarantee privacy and security of individuals and businesses;
- Enable individuals and businesses to hold and control their information (self-sovereignty);
- And allow individuals and businesses to use the digital wallet of their choice and port or give access to their digital credentials from one wallet or system to another.
“Our goal at INATBA is to push for technology and policy landscapes for digital credentials to enable interoperability and mutual support across borders,” stated Ricardo Simões, Executive Director of INATBA.
“We are seeing a global trend towards the development of Digital Credential ecosystems by governments worldwide. This Task Force aims to offer guidance towards strong alignment of these innovative and important efforts,” stated Kai Wagner, CPO at Jolocom, chair of the INATBA Identity Working Group, and member of INATBA’s Board of Directors.
“Digital Credentials enable a more trusted Internet. For that to happen, we need a global adoption of this technology, so that a citizen’s digital credentials are globally recognized and accepted in any country. “This task force aims to recommend best practices to governments for the cross-border implementation of digital credentials, ensuring privacy, security, and self-sovereignty,” remarked Antonio Matias Gil, founder and CEO of To Be Blockchain.
Professor Lisa Short of the INATBA Academic Advisory Board, on the Task Force, remarked that “The ability to trust digital credentials and have self-sovereignty over their authentication is the “front door key” to society engaging in a secure, inclusive, and sustainable digital world.” We must ensure these foundations are shaped with a policy and framework that supports people and businesses with the dignified respect, security, transparency, privacy, and trust that is an inherent human right. This Task Force research will help inform the Academic Advisory Board so they can develop reference recommendations and purposefully interact with decision-makers to guide principles and processes for public and private systems and services.
The members steering this Task Force include Accenture, Archipels, aviate labs, bit4ID, CNRS, Fireblocks, Government of Canada, HAW Hamburg, Incrreda, IOTA Foundation, Jolocom, National Digital Agency of the Ministry of Economy and Industry in Israel, Kunfud, La Poste, Tshwane University of Technology, LACChain, Morpheus Network, UNJSPF, Cabinet Secretariat of the Japanese Government, Sphereon, To Be Blockchain, Trakti, TU Berlin.
This Task Force is exclusively for INATBA members, so join INATBA today to start shaping the future of digital credentials! To become involved in the Task Force, please contact Bara Greplova at bara.greplova@inatba.org.
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About INATBA
Launched in 2019 with the support of the European Commission, INATBA – International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications, is a highly influential Association in advocating for Blockchain and DLT adoption in Europe and globally. INATBA is mainly known for its credibility with regulatory authorities and policymakers and is appraised for its contributions to Markets in Crypto Asset Regulation (MICA), Transfer of Funds Regulation (TFOR), electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services (eIDAS), CHAISE Project, EU Pact for Skills, Academic & Governmental Advisory Bodies, and its passionate diverse global community of CEOs, CTOs, Heads of Policy, Public/Institutional Relations, Legal, Marketing & BizDev, Developers, Policymakers. To learn more, visit www.inatba.org.
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