The OpenID Foundation will launch formal conformance testing in February 2026 for three critical digital identity standards, OpenID for Verifiable Presentations, OpenID for Verifiable Credential Issuance, and the High Assurance Interoperability Profile, providing a unified framework for global interoperability, Security Brief United States reports.
The move enables organizations to self-certify their implementations of credential issuers, digital wallets, and verification systems using open-source test suites, with successful submissions published publicly to ensure transparency.
More than 38 jurisdictions, including the European Union under eIDAS 2.0, the UK, Switzerland, and Japan, have already adopted these specifications, which use cryptographic methods to support privacy-preserving, user-controlled digital credentials.
According to Executive Director Gail Hodges, this milestone represents what "the entire industry has been working towards for years," establishing the foundation for digital identity ecosystems to scale.
The timing aligns with key regulatory deadlines, and the foundation plans to introduce accreditation services in mid-2026 to help local authorities align tests with national schemes.
The move enables organizations to self-certify their implementations of credential issuers, digital wallets, and verification systems using open-source test suites, with successful submissions published publicly to ensure transparency.
More than 38 jurisdictions, including the European Union under eIDAS 2.0, the UK, Switzerland, and Japan, have already adopted these specifications, which use cryptographic methods to support privacy-preserving, user-controlled digital credentials.
According to Executive Director Gail Hodges, this milestone represents what "the entire industry has been working towards for years," establishing the foundation for digital identity ecosystems to scale.
The timing aligns with key regulatory deadlines, and the foundation plans to introduce accreditation services in mid-2026 to help local authorities align tests with national schemes.
