Switzerland: E-ID set to go live in early 2026
E-ID participation meeting, Zollikofen 2024.12.06
Human Colossus Foundation’s Dynamic Data Economy perspective
On December 6, 2024, the Swiss Federal Council made decisions regarding the technical implementation of the Confederation's new electronic identity proof (e-ID) and the underlying operational infrastructure. A press release [1] describes a two-stage launch of the e-ID, with the first delivery planned for 2026. The first stage will introduce a technology used by the European Union. At the same time, work will continue to develop additional solutions that could be used in a second stage to meet even higher privacy protection requirements, in particular the requirement that the various uses of the e-ID not be traceable to an individual.
DVS4U: Integration des E-ID Ökosystems in kantonale und kommunale Systeme
On the same day, representatives of the Human Colossus Foundation attended the annual hybrid participation meeting of the project E-ID, which took place in the Federal Office of Information Technology, Systems and Telecommunication (FOITT) buildings in Zollikofen. The Human Colossus Foundation's (HCF) contribution is the technology for securing and styling the visualisation of the E-ID on mobile devices. E-ID pilots have already implemented HCF's Overlays Capture Architecture (OCA) [2] in different contexts (see for example canton Thurgau proof of concept [3]. The Foundation will continue to support the E-ID team on semantic harmonisation for a stylish but secured visualisation of digital proofs.
However, our goal at the Human Colossus Foundation is to promote and support E-ID projects beyond the semantic realm. We support E-ID and public service initiatives in Switzerland and abroad. Our Dynamic Data Economy (DDE) approach anticipates the future implementation of national infrastructure components, including distributed governance and decentralised authentication. These technologies go beyond the building of complex verifiable credential use cases. They enable an ecosystem approach, helping integrate many providers of digital proofs, further enabling diverse use cases for E-ID.
We welcome the two-stage approach of the project that confirms a go-live for 2026 while activating research and development for higher security and privacy.
References:
[1] Swiss Federal Council December 6 2024 press release https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases.msg-id-102922.html
[2] OCA website and specification https://oca.colossi.network/
[3] Canton Thurgau DVS4U: Integration des E-ID Ökosystem in kantonale and kommunale Systeme: https://github.com/e-id-admin/general/blob/main/meetings/20241206_E-ID-Partizipationsmeeting_DVS4U_DE.pdf
Other Informations
Swiss Digital Identity and Trust infrastructure blog posts
Public Beta is Open Source: https://www.eid.admin.ch/en/public-beta-ist-open-source-e
SWIYU – Notes on the design and name of the e-ID and trust infrastructure: https://www.eid.admin.ch/en/swiyu-e
Project E-ID Git-Hub: https://github.com/e-id-admin
The Human Colossus Foundation is a neutral but technology-savvy Geneva-based non-profit foundation under the surveillance of the Swiss federal authorities.
