Mapping Decentralized Digital Identity Mapping Decentralized Digital Identity
The Web of Trust Map, created by KEY STATE CAPITAL, visualizes the growth of the decentralized identity ecosystem and enables researchers, journalists, regulators, academics, investors, and the general public to finally understand the scope of work in our space.
This is the largest and most complete effort to map the decentralized identity space and its continued growth in the world.More than half of the world is working towards Decentralized Identity Solutions.
1181 public entities in 105 countries endorse decentralized identity projects.
| Continent | Public Entities |
|---|---|
| 600 | |
| 248 | |
| 204 | |
| 45 | |
| 37 | |
| 30 |
Our research identified 1181 public entities in 105 countries working with projects that self-assess as self-sovereign identity projects. These entities may be nation-level or regional/municipal. In 161 cases, a public entity funded a project. In 59 cases, a public entity is managing a project. In 352 cases, a public entity is a member of a project or consortia and in 1246 cases, a public entity is affiliated with a project or consortia.
"[Decentralized Identity] offers a wide range of features that prioritize interoperability, robust trust and reliability, cost efficiency and innovation." — Bhutan NDI
North America is established as the pioneer of Decentralized Identity.
With over 80 projects, key players in the US are working across sectors like healthcare, government, finance, and education, offering verifiable credentials and self-sovereign identity (SSI) solutions using blockchain and other decentralized technologies.
| # | Country | Projects/Consortia | Private Entities | Public Entities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States of America | 81 | 830 | 118 |
| 2 | Canada | 46 | 183 | 83 |
| 3 | Germany | 43 | 336 | 87 |
| 4 | Netherlands | 31 | 124 | 31 |
| 5 | Switzerland | 28 | 210 | 49 |
| 6 | France | 24 | 94 | 41 |
| 7 | United Kingdom | 24 | 222 | 35 |
| 8 | Spain | 23 | 182 | 93 |
| 9 | South Korea | 19 | 311 | 54 |
| 10 | Australia | 18 | 63 | 20 |
Top 10 Countries by ID Projects
Showing the leading countries in digital identity adoption.
Canada has been aggressive in its pursuit of Decentralized Identity
The Government of British Colombia, through it's Hyperledger Indy based initiatives, has been a flag bearer for what federal level implementations can look like. The ecosystem is quite diverse as well, with entities large (Northern Block) and small (Aviary Tech) contributing to its growth.
Europe is creating standards and institutions in pursuit of user-friendly, and interoperable digital identities across the continent.
The region has seen significant advances in legislation such as eIDAS, EBA's technical standards, European Digital Identity (EUDI) Regulation and the European Digital Identity Wallet Architecture and Reference Framework (ARF). To boot these advances can also be seen in projects such as EBSI, and INATBA.
Africa is using Decentralized Identity to improve services and empower youth
e-ID Mauritania aims to provide inclusive, mobile-based digital identities for improved access to services. At the same time, Yoma in South Africa focuses on youth, offering a secure profile system to track progress and connect users with educational and employment opportunities.
Asia is integrating Decentralized Identity with Government and Everyday Services
Projects like Seoul Wallet, and B Pass show how decentralized identity is being integrated into everyday services, from communication tools to transportation and city services.
The Bhutanese Government's adoption of decentralized identity is particularly notable. Through it's National Digital Identity Act of Bhutan 2023 (NDI Act 2023), based on SSI principles, Bhutan has established Decentralized Identity infrastructure, presence in industry leading consortia, and seeks to completely digitize its personal, business, and federal systems.
Latin America is embracing decentralized identity.
Buenos Aires, Argentina leads with QuarkID, giving 3.6 million residents self-sovereign identities via blockchain and zero-knowledge cryptography. Meanwhile, Binaria Technologies enhances security in Mexico by replacing passwords with verifiable digital credentials, reducing fraud. These innovations set new regional standards for privacy, security, and digital inclusion.
Decentralized Identity is helping communities preserve their history in New Zealand.
Āhau is a Whānau Data Platform that helps families and tribal communities capture, preserve, and securely share important histories. It was created in collaboration with whānau to provide a system for managing knowledge, ensuring privacy and data security for current and future generations.
Digital Identity Projects Show Steady Growth with Increasing Market Maturity and Adoption
Decentralized Identity has seen explosive growth since its roots in the "Laws of Digital Identity" by Kim Cameron, "The Path to Self Sovereign Identity" by Christopher Allen, and the inception of Sovrin in 2017, with many projects diffusely emerging to realize the technology across the globe.
When looking at the data, you can see a potential S-curve forming, with the most new projects (56) being launched sometime in 2019. As standards such as W3C Verifiable Credentials, established in 2019, and subsequently W3C Decentralized Identifiers, established in 2022, we've seen a maturation in terms of utilization of similar tech stacks, and therefore a tapering of new projects.
The stacked area visualization reveals the cumulative growth and composition of digital identity projects over time. Our inclusion criteria cut off the recording of new projects in mid 2023, so there is yet indexed growth potential for the Web of Trust.
This, however, just reflects that, as the foundational infrastructure is being set for Decentralized ID, then the attention goes higher up the stack, where different industry verticals can realize the productive gains of these groundbreaking technologies.
Blockchain is the Backbone of Decentralized Identity
63% of Decentralized Identity Projects use Blockchain
Most Used Blockchain Technology Platforms
Some projects, such as Transmute using DID:web, do not feature blockchain as a verifiable data registry, and rather opt to resolving counterparties public keys using a web2 endpoint. Some experts claim that web based methods ultimately subscribe to the security guarantees which come with web2 infrastructure.
Blockchain-based solutions try to address these centralization risks by leveraging a shared, public data layer secured through cryptographic consensus mechanisms. There are also other emerging solutions (such as KERI) that seek to move beyond the singular use of blockchain and attempt to achieve decentralized consensus for key discovery by other means.
Decentralized Identity is getting everywhere.
From finance and healthcare to sports and tourism, decentralized digital identity is finding its way into many industries.
Top Industries by Project Count
Finance
In the finance industry, decentralized identity addresses challenges like identity theft, data breaches, and inefficient verification processes. Platforms like Parameta's MyID and ConnectID facilitate compliance by offering verifiable credentials and robust identity verification, streamlining processes like KYC and preventing fraud in financial services.
Marketing
THEPOL is a South Korean innovative company that executes advertisements using a blockchain-based participant voting method. It is a completely new type of survey platform with blockchain, distributed authentication (DID), and cryptocurrency.
Education
The Digital Credentials Consortium is advancing the understanding and use of privacy-enhanced, portable, verifiable digital academic credentials in higher education through open source technology development and leadership, research, and advocacy.
Health
HPEC is a decentralized digital physicians' guild that empowers doctors with a secure identity and credential wallet, enabling seamless work, networking, and mobility. Meanwhile, Truu modernizes staff verification by providing instant, secure digital identity proof, reducing administrative burdens and freeing up more time for patient care. Another notable example is HealthKERI, which uses decentralized identity for secure data exchange between healthcare organizations.
Government
Countries like Bhutan, Mauritania, Singapore, and Palau are providing secure and verifiable identity credentials to their citizens using Decentralized Identity. Regional governments like New South Wales, Buenos Aires, and Seoul are also implementing these technologies.
Tourism & Automotive
Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) aims to make mobility services more efficient and safer with initiatives like Vehicle Identity (VID) Standard. Mobix is a blockchain-based micromobility platform that implements Self-Sovereign Identity technology to incentivize sustainable urban transportation, while Cardossier digitizes and automates vehicle lifecycle management.
Real Estate
Domi is a digital passport designed to optimize the experience of rental applications and tenant selection for both property managers and tenants. Using next-generation digital identity technology, it supports the ability to establish identity, financial and credit checks via verifiable digital credentials — enabling the identification of compatible tenants without needing to handle paperwork.
Creative Industries
The Creative Passport (now Auracles) serves as a digital identity container for music professionals, holding verified profile information, works, acknowledgements, and business details, empowering artists to maintain control over their digital identity and creative works.
Open Banking Wallets' $16T Transaction Boom Highlights the need for secure, reusable ID Features.
The surge in digital banking wallet transactions underscores a growing challenge in financial services: the need for robust, reusable digital identity solutions. As these wallets become the primary financial interface for billions, they present both an opportunity and a security imperative. Rather than creating new data silos and potential breach targets, the financial sector is uniquely positioned to lead the adoption of decentralized identity protocols.
With 500 million people expected to use digital ID wallets by 2026, a move in the financial industry toward interoperable, decentralized identity solutions could set the standard for secure, privacy-preserving authentication. Organizations like the Open Wallet Foundation are already working on global standards for interoperability, recognizing that the value of digital identity solutions multiplies when they work seamlessly across different providers and jurisdictions.
The digital identity developer community stands at a pivotal moment, as foundational decisions about security architecture and interoperability standards are being established - choices which will shape the global digital ecosystem and impact billions of users for decades to come.
Project Timeline
Q1 2023
Data Collection
Bootstrapping the data collection process.
Q1 2025
Private Beta
Alpha testers get early access and give feedback.
Q1 2025
Public Beta
Public release of UI . Crowd-sourcing data quality improvements from the community & public.
Q2 2025
Dataset release
After quality control crowd-sourcing, all data is publicly released under CC BY 4.0 License.
