Paper and plastic IDs burn in wildfires, get stolen, cost weeks to replace from abroad, and are now easy to forge with AI. A signed digital credential, bound to your phone and re-issued in minutes when the phone is lost, fixes all four. Try it below.
Sample person, sample issuer. Every key is generated in your browser and every check below is real cryptography (ECDSA P-256 signatures, salted-hash selective disclosure). Nothing leaves this page.
The technology already exists in open international standards. What's missing is the law and the service around it. A document meets this standard when it does all of these:
The government signs the credential. Anyone can check it with a free app against a public list of issuer keys. Change one letter and the check fails.
ISO/IEC 18013-5 and 18013-7 · W3C Verifiable Credentials · SD-JWT VCEach presentation is signed by a key that never leaves the phone. A copied file or a screenshot is worthless.
Device authentication (mdoc) · key bindingLost, stolen or burned? Prove it's you with a face match against the record the issuer already holds, and get a new credential on a new phone. The old one is revoked at once. No office visit, no fee after a disaster or theft.
Remote re-issuance · status listsNo rule that you must also carry the plastic. Paper and plastic stay available for anyone who wants them, but become optional.
Needs a change in lawA bar learns "over 21", not your birth date or address. You see and approve every request.
Selective disclosure · OpenID4VPChecks work offline. The issuer is not told where or when you showed your ID.
No phone-home · cached revocation listsBirth and marriage certificates, titles and deeds become signed records you can download again at any time. A printout carries a QR code that checks back to the signature.
Verifiable civil recordsCountries recognise each other's issuer keys, as they already do for chip passports.
ICAO PKD · EU trusted lists · AAMVA Digital Trust Service| Jurisdiction | Digital document today | Valid on its own? | What we ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Mobile driver's licence pilot (CA DMV Wallet, Apple, Google, Samsung); about 1.7 million active | No Must still carry the physical card | A bill making the mDL a full legal substitute; remote re-issuance for Californians abroad; free re-issuance for wildfire and theft victims |
| Argentina | DNI digital and licencia digital in Mi Argentina | Partly DNI digital has full identifying value (Decreto 744/2019); passport is paper only | Replacement of DNI and passport from abroad without a consulate visit; free offline verifier app; civil records as signed credentials |
| Buenos Aires Province | National digital licence usable only temporarily (Res. 198/2025, card shortage) | No Province has not adhered to the national digital licence system | Adhere permanently; issue birth and marriage records from the Registro Provincial de las Personas as signed digital records |
| Germany | "d-you" EUDI wallet launches 2 Jan 2027 (DIdG passed the Bundestag 15 Oct 2026) | Partly ID card online; passport not included | A passport-derived travel credential in d-you; remote re-issuance for Germans abroad; back digital-only border crossing in the EU talks |
| European Union | Digital Travel Credential regulation in negotiation | No Current texts still require the physical passport at the border | A dated path to crossing with the digital credential alone |