Digital ID: It's Not Rocket Science (Part 1)

Attempting to Explain the Technology Behind the Electronic Wallet — and Why the European Commission's Technical Choices Fall Short.

The European digital wallet is shaping up to be deeply problematic. The Commission is pushing it through for political reasons while backing a technical solution that is, in practice, wholly dependent on Google and Apple.

And this is not a fringe view — it is the considered assessment of every prominent cryptographer, security specialist, and privacy expert we consulted. The four articles that follow speak for themselves.

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Without trust — and public trust in European and national institutions is at a historic low — this wallet will appeal only to what one might unkindly call the euro-techno-sheep: roughly 10 to 15% of the population. Any attempt to impose it by stealth- de facto - would carry serious social and political consequences, not least a fundamental breach of equality before the law.

What makes this all the more striking is that the solution chosen by the Commission does not actually meet the requirements of the European Council regulation — go figure! In plain terms, what DG Digital EU intends to implement is unlawful. A referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union would be enough to bring the entire edifice down.

So what is really going on? What gives? The answer requires a degree of technical detail that cannot be avoided. In this first part, we turn to the security issues.