OpenID to launch digital ID conformance tests by 2026

The OpenID Foundation will introduce conformance testing from February 2026 for three finalised digital identity specifications that underpin many national and regional identity programmes.

The move covers OpenID for Verifiable Presentations, OpenID for Verifiable Credential Issuance, and the High Assurance Interoperability Profile (HAIP). The foundation said organisations will be able to self-certify implementations of credential issuers, digital wallets and credential verification systems against dedicated test suites before they go live.

More than 38 jurisdictions have already selected these standards. Adopters include the European Union under its eIDAS 2.0 framework, the UK, the Swiss Confederation, the Western Balkans and Japan's Digital Agency.

Implementers will submit self-certified logs. The foundation will publish successful submissions openly on its website. The organisation said this will create transparency across the ecosystem and give companies and public bodies a way to demonstrate compliance to regulators and partners.

The foundation already offers free open source tests. Developers can run these locally or via OpenID Foundation servers and can integrate them into development pipelines ahead of the February 2026 launch of formal self-certification.

"This is what the entire industry has been working towards for years," said Gail Hodges, Executive Director, OpenID Foundation. "With stable standards and conformance testing launching in February 2026, we finally have the foundations for digital identity ecosystems and their conformance programs to flourish at production scale."

The specifications use cryptographic methods for digital credentials. The foundation said they support privacy-preserving designs that keep individuals' information under user control while meeting regulatory requirements across multiple jurisdictions.

National digital identity programmes can build systems that interoperate across borders. Governments can use these specifications to support secure access to digital public services.

The OpenID Foundation plans to add accreditation services in the second quarter of 2026. It said this will allow local authorities to align the tests with national schemes and other conformance regimes.

Regulatory deadlines

The timing of the February 2026 launch aligns with critical milestones under the EU's eIDAS 2.0 programme and other regulatory initiatives. Many ecosystems will impose obligations on participants. Those schemes are expected to draw on the foundation's open source test suites and conformance tooling.

The foundation said this shared infrastructure reduces divergence in how conformance tests develop in different regions. It also said it helps implementers track the latest specifications and spreads lessons learned across the global community.

Self-certified implementations use automated tooling. The foundation said this lowers the risk of security or interoperability problems and promotes compatibility with other certified systems worldwide.

Implementations that complete self-certification will also undergo independent review by the foundation. The organisation described itself as a long-standing standards body with experience publishing more than 4,000 self-certifications at non-profit pricing.

The European Commission and ETSI recognise the OpenID Foundation as one of the standards development organisations involved in the European Digital Identity Wallet programme. Representatives highlighted this role during the EUDI Wallet Launchpad standards panel in Brussels.

At that event the foundation introduced an EUDI Wallet Resource Hub. The hub is designed as a catalogue of tools and documentation that European Digital Identity Wallet participants can use when working towards eIDAS 2.0 requirements.

Global uptake

Interest extends beyond Europe. Governments and public sector organisations in the UK, Switzerland, California's Department of Motor Vehicles, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology's National Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence, and the Western Balkans have committed to OpenID-based specifications in their digital credential plans.

The foundation expects more ecosystems to use its open source tests and conformance tools as these programmes advance. It said jurisdictions can discuss localised approaches that fit domestic regulatory and market structures.

The specifications draw on collaboration with other standards bodies including W3C, ISO, IETF and the FIDO Alliance. The OpenID Foundation's existing conformance tooling already supports identity and financial services ecosystems in Brazil, the UK, Australia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Interoperability results

The announcement follows a series of interoperability events during 2025. The foundation and participants used these events to test both the specifications and the associated open source test suites in live implementations.

The Digital Credentials Protocol Working Group reported a 98% passing rate for OpenID for Verifiable Presentations 1.0 combined with HAIP 1.0 and the Digital Credentials API. This figure covered 44 wallet and verifier pairs.

Testing of OpenID for Verifiable Credential Issuance produced an 82% passing rate across 22 issuer and wallet pairs. The most recent tests included vendors and platforms such as Mattr, Bundesdruckerei, Google Wallet, Panasonic Connect, My Mahi and Meeco. The group said this represented a range of regions and technical approaches.

The EUDI Wallet Launchpad event in Brussels also featured demonstrations of interoperability using these specifications. The foundation expects further test events as more jurisdictions and vendors work on production systems based on the same standards.