By Peter Lechlein, Principal Content Designer
on behalf of Service NSW Digital Identity and Verifiable Credentials team
Published 26 November 2024 – 3 minute read
By aligning with national and international standards, citizens will be able to use the NSW Digital Wallet and credentials in other Australian states, territories, and around the globe.
Last month, we participated in the International Identity and Verifiable Credentials 2024 (IVC 24) summit and interoperability event. At IVC 24, we showcased how the NSW Digital Wallet and its credentials can seamlessly interoperate with global technology and government systems by designing to a common standard.
How common standards support seamless and secure experiences
Many governments and industries around the globe are equipping citizens with better tools to safely and easily navigate the digital world. Common standards ensure these tools function seamlessly across borders and various systems. These standards are crucial in making it effortless for citizens to use digital credentials in any situation.
The International Standards Organisation (ISO), mobile driving licence (mDL) and mobile document (mDoc) standards are being adopted in Australia, Asia, Europe and the US. These standards enable driver licences and ID documents to be verified and accepted more widely. Additionally, they support selective disclosure, which helps protect privacy and reduce oversharing of sensitive information.
Successfully boarding a US flight with a NSW Digital Wallet and Photo Card
The challenge
Our goal for IVC 24 was to create a digital NSW Photo Card to the ISO mDoc standard. We planned to test this digital NSW Photo Card by scanning it at a US Department of Homeland Security’s airport gate ID document reader.
The digital NSW Photo Card was successfully shared from the NSW Digital Wallet and verified so we could ‘board the flight’ during the test event. This marks the first time a photo card has been successfully verified using a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Credential Authentication Technology (CAT-2) reader. It’s a big step towards making digital services more inclusive for people without a driver licence. Just because someone can’t drive doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have the opportunity to fly.
IVC 24 showed how the NSW Digital Wallet and Photo Card can interoperate with different governments and systems to make digital services accessible, inclusive and connected for everyone in NSW.
Testing advanced technology
Our engineers in action
IVC 24 also offered our talented engineers the opportunity to perform live testing alongside a diverse group of engineers and their wallet and verification solutions. Among those participating in the test event were Chirangi Patel and Yejeen Park from Service NSW.
Chirangi found working with engineers from different parts of the world and learning about their approaches and solutions for mDL and mDoc implementation very helpful.
‘It’s a rare opportunity to test leading edge technology in-person with engineers from governments and organisations around the world. You don’t often get the chance to have debugging sessions with so many credential issuers and verifiers. IVC 24 allowed us to complete over 90 test sessions and 300 test cases, covering both in-person and remote transactions. We discovered ways our products can work across various verification methods so they’re more useful for citizens.’
Image (from left to right): Brian Lee, Chirangi Patel, Yejeen Park, Kai Yang, and Jahnavi Patel from Service NSW at the IVC 24 interoperability event.
For Yejeen, the test event showed the potential of the NSW Digital Wallet and credentials being used more widely in Australia and globally.
‘It was fascinating to see digital credentials being verified not just using mobile phones, but also with a variety of devices and methods. Installing a verification app on a portable EFTPOS machine was an innovative solution that could be adopted by many businesses to verify credentials. We worked with 26 verifiers for mDL and 15 verifiers for mDoc, testing different verification methods like QR code scanning and Bluetooth.’
A step toward more inclusive digital services
What’s next
The IVC 24 summit and test event provided valuable insights into how the NSW Digital Wallet and credentials can effectively interoperate with different jurisdictions and governments.
We'll put this knowledge to use in our upcoming NSW Photo Card pilot, which aligns with the NSW Digital Strategy. This pilot will help make digital verification more inclusive, especially for those without a driver licence.
By embracing common standards, we’re making it easier for more NSW citizens to access digital services.
Want to work with us?
Contact us to learn more about Service NSW digital capabilities.