24 From eIDAS to SSI in the European Union

SSI has become a major exponential technology theme for some governments ranging from the United States, Canada, Korea, Australia down to New Zealand. In our previous chapter, two of the leading SSI pioneers in Canada explained how the Canadian government is approaching SSI. In this chapter, legal expert Dr. Ignacio Alamillo-Domingo shares with us the evolution of digital identity in the European Union to explain how all paths in Europe lead to SSI. Dr. Alamillo-Domingo is a legal expert in the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure project who is involved in standardisation activities at ISO/TC307, CEN-CLC/JTC19 and ETSI TC ESI. He also has a PhD in public law about the eIDAS.

Creating trust in Internet transactions is one of the main needs for the proper functioning of the Information Society and—from the perspective of the European Union (EU)—of the internal European market. As Chapter 1 explained, the initial Internet architecture designed in the 1960s and 70s did not give priority to security. Achieving an environment in which people feel safe and confident has become a necessity to promote the adoption of digital identity.

24.1  Public Key Infrastructure was the first regulated identity services facility in the EU

24.2  The EU legal framework

24.3  The European Union identity federation

24.3.1      The legal concept of electronic IDentification (eID)

24.3.2      The scope of the eIDAS FIM Regulation and its relationship with national law

24.4  Summarizing the value of eIDAS for SSI adoption

24.5  Scenarios for adoption of SSI in the the EU identity metasystem

24.6  SSI Scorecard for the EBSI