Digital identity verification is about to get a lot more standardised. OpenID for Verifiable Presentations (OpenID4VP) achieved Final specification status in July 2025. Within recent years, it has transformed from a technical protocol into a regulatory requirement affecting, for example, 450 million EU citizens. If you're working with digital identity, customer verification, or regulatory compliance, this shift impacts your technology roadmap whether you realise it or not. At Vidos, it's one of the core standards used for credentials we verify.
Think of OpenID4VP as the universal language for sharing digital credentials. Just as HTTPS standardised secure web communications, OpenID4VP standardises how digital wallets present credentials to verifiers.
When you apply for a mortgage, you might need to prove your identity, employment status, income, and residency. Traditionally, this means gathering documents from multiple sources: passport from government, employment letter from HR, bank statements from your bank, utility bills for address proof. OpenID4VP revolutionises this by enabling you to present multiple credentials from different issuers in a single, cryptographically verified transaction.
The protocol builds on OAuth 2.0, the same foundation that powers "Sign in with Google" buttons across the web. We're looking at an evolution of battle-tested standards that already handle billions of authentication events daily.
Version 1.0 reaching Final status in July 2025 fundamentally changes the risk calculation for organisations. A Final specification means:
This stability aligns with an avalanche of adoption. The EU made OpenID4VP legally mandatory for all digital identity wallets by December 2026. Switzerland, Japan, Germany, and the UK have all committed to implementations. When regulations reference a technical standard by name, that standard has crossed from "interesting technology" to "business requirement."
The European Union embedded OpenID4VP directly into law through eIDAS 2.0. By December 2026, every EU member state must provide citizens with digital identity wallets that speak OpenID4VP. This represents a legal obligation with enforcement mechanisms.
The ripple effects extend far beyond Europe:
Perhaps most significantly, Google built native OpenID4VP support directly into Android as of April 2025. When a protocol gets integrated into an operating system, it's past the experimental phase.
A Netherlands-Canada Digital Travel Credential pilot shows what's possible when standards align. Border crossing times dropped from minutes to 10-14 seconds, with the fastest recorded at 6 seconds. Speed tells only part of the story. Travellers presented both their digital passport and visa credentials together, border systems verified both simultaneously against different government issuers, and the combined verification completed instantly.
Financial services demonstrate even more sophisticated scenarios. Consider opening a business account, which typically requires:
In future, with OpenID4VP, a business owner can present all five credentials from different issuers - government, companies registry, tax authority - in one transaction. The bank's verification system confirms each credential's authenticity, checks they haven't been revoked, and validates the relationships between them (ensuring the person presenting the ID is the same person authorised by the company).
Healthcare providers leverage this for complex eligibility verification. A patient seeking specialist treatment might need to prove:
Rather than faxing documents between offices or carrying paper folders, patients present all required credentials digitally. The receiving system verifies each credential independently while understanding their relationships.
Modern verification requires understanding complex relationships between multiple credentials from various sources. Here's where professional verification services prove their value.
A standards-compliant verification service like Vidos handles this orchestration through several key capabilities:
The Verifier checks the cryptographic validity of each credential - ensuring they haven't been forged, confirming the digital signatures, validating they're from legitimate issuers. When someone presents three credentials from different countries' governments, the Verifier handles the varying signature algorithms, credential formats (W3C Verifiable Credentials, ISO mDocs, SD-JWT VCs), and revocation mechanisms each might use.
Technical validity alone won't suffice. The Validator applies your organisation's specific rules:
For instance, a German bank might require that business registration credentials come from an EU member state's official registry, be less than 30 days old, and include specific company type information. The Validator enforces these rules consistently across millions of verifications.
Real-world verification often involves choices. An age verification request might accept either a driving licence or passport. Employment verification might accept either a recent payslip or an employer-issued credential. The Authorizer manages these presentation rules, telling wallets exactly what combinations of credentials will satisfy the request.
This flexibility matters enormously for user experience. Instead of rejection because they lack one specific credential, users see alternatives they can provide.
The OpenID Foundation's July 2025 interoperability event achieved an 87% success rate across different implementations. That's remarkable for a new standard, while highlighting why professional verification services matter.
Consider a university verifying international student applications. Students might present:
Each credential type might use different standards, signature methods, and validity periods. Some might include selective disclosure (showing grades for specific subjects without revealing others), while others present all-or-nothing. A standards-based verifier abstracts this complexity, providing consistent results regardless of credential origin.
The transition to OpenID4VP is happening now. Under EU mandates, by the end of 2027, companies must support it by law. Financial institutions need it for streamlined KYC. Healthcare providers require it for privacy-compliant patient verification. Even social media platforms are adopting it for age assurance ahead of the UK's Online Safety Act enforcement in 2026.
OpenID4VP rarely deploys in isolation. Real implementations combine:
This complexity makes building verification in-house prohibitively expensive. By the time you've implemented OpenID4VP, added format support, built revocation checking, created policy engines, and maintained issuer trust lists, you've essentially rebuilt what specialised verification services already provide.
What gets us excited is that standards-based verification enables entirely new business models. Consider a car rental company that accepts:
Instead of building integrations with each potential source, they implement OpenID4VP once and immediately support thousands of credential issuers worldwide. Their competitive advantage shifts from "we accept these three types of ID" to "we accept any standards-compliant credential."
This universality extends to sector-specific scenarios:
There are 4 key take aways:
Exciting times lie ahead! If you're looking to explore digital credential verification for your organisation, get in touch to discover how Vidos can help you implement OpenID4VP and build sophisticated verification flows
