On digital identity and trust

This page is your starting story for Digital Trust. Identity. Explained.

Digital identity and electronic trust services are the plumbing of online trust.

They decide who is allowed to do what, on whose behalf, and with what legal effect when everything happens through screens, apps, and APIs instead of paper and in-person meetings.

By the end of this introduction, you should:

• Recognize the main actors in a digital identity and trust ecosystem.
• See what actually flows between them – credentials, attestations, and trust services.
• Understand, at a high level, where legislative initatives, like eIDAS 2.0 and the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet fit in.

If you want precise term-by-term explanations, jump straight to the Glossary. If you want the story first, read on.

1. From paper trust to digital trust

For most of the last century, trust in identity and signatures was anchored in paper and people:

• You met someone in person.
• You checked a passport or ID card.
• You signed a paper contract with a pen.
• A notary or witness attested that the signature came from the right person.
• Paper originals and wet signatures became the evidence.

Digital systems broke this pattern. Now:

• People onboard to services entirely online, sometimes from another country.
• Contracts are signed on a phone, laptop, or tablet, often without any human in the loop.