Building EU Digital Trust - An Explainer

Insights from Jon Shamah: A Global Perspective on Digital Identity and Transformation

For numerous organizations, including government authorities and private entities, to achieve Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP) status necessary for issuing Verifiable Credentials (VCs) under the EU’s eIDAS regulation is a difficult. Becoming a QTSP internally presents significant operational challenges, requiring complex compliance with mandatory standards for advanced cryptographic systems, interoperability schemas, and strict GDPR mandates concerning selective disclosure and real-time revocation. To bypass this resource-intensive internal burden, We identify four strategic alternatives, ranging from expensive, slow consultancy engagement to highly capital-intensive business acquisition. The analysis consistently favours the cloud services integration model, which offers inherent scalability, cost efficiency, and simplified regulatory compliance by utilizing specialised third-party components. Choosing the correct strategy depends on an organization’s internal resources, tolerance for third-party dependency, and the importance of rapid market deployment within the emerging EUDI Wallet ecosystem. (PS. I do use my AI friends to explain this in audio format.)