In our recent webinar, Building a Business Model Around EUDI Credentials, Agne Caunt and Richard Esplin explored how organizations can monetize verifiable credentials.
As EUDI introduces a common framework for trusted digital credentials across Europe, there are opportunities for issuers, verifiers, wallet providers and organizations operating credential ecosystems.
Here's how the different models could work.
1. Issuers: Get paid for information they already have
Banks, telecoms, universities and other organizations already hold verified information that other businesses need.
By issuing that information as verifiable credentials, they can create value in several ways.
- Charge for issuance. People already pay for professional licenses and official certificates. Digital credentials could follow a similar model, where regulations permit.
- Bundle credentials with existing services. A telecom could include a verified phone-number credential in its subscription, increasing the value of its service.
- Charge for verification. A bank or telecom could earn revenue when other organizations verify its credentials, provided the credential ecosystem supports an appropriate privacy-preserving billing mechanism.
- Reduce internal costs. A bank could issue reusable customer credentials to avoid repeating identity checks when customers apply for additional products.
Issuers can also use credentials to improve customer acquisition or retention. So the value isn't always direct revenue.
2. Verifiers: Spend less on checks they already perform
Verifiers usually don't need an entirely new business model. They already have a reason to verify information.
A bank needs to verify customers. An employer needs to check qualifications. A business needs to confirm that a supplier holds valid insurance.
Verifiable credentials can make these checks faster, cheaper and less dependent on manual document collection.
For verifiers, the business case is often about reducing the cost of obtaining information they already need.
And because they benefit from verification, they may be willing to pay issuers or ecosystem operators for access to trusted credentials.
3. Wallet providers: Charge for access, distribution or usage
Wallet providers can use several business models, depending on the wallet they operate.
- Holder subscriptions. People pay for wallet access or premium features. Password managers like 1Password illustrate a comparable model for secure credential management.
- Issuer-funded services. Organizations pay wallet providers to make their credentials accessible to customers. Apple Pay illustrates similar economics, with card-issuing banks paying fees associated with transactions.
- Per-verification fees. Consider a university providing digital student IDs. Businesses could pay a fee when verifying student eligibility for discounts or services, generating revenue for the wallet operator.
However, there's an important EUDI distinction.
Notified European Digital Identity Wallets must be free for natural persons and face strict privacy requirements that constrain business models dependent on tracking credential presentations.
Other wallets can support EUDI-compatible credentials without necessarily being notified EUDI wallets. These can offer more flexibility in how they charge, subject to applicable privacy rules and technical requirements.
Not every wallet using EUDI-compatible credentials has to follow the same commercial model.
4. Ecosystem operators: Make money by organizing trust
An ecosystem brings together issuers, verifiers and wallet providers under shared rules.
Someone needs to establish those rules, determine who can participate and maintain trust between organizations.
That creates several possible revenue models.
- Governance fees. Participants pay an operator to maintain the ecosystem's rules, oversight and dispute processes, similar to payment network schemes.
- Certification and compliance fees. Organizations pay for assessments demonstrating they meet the ecosystem's requirements.
- Membership or entry fees. Issuers and verifiers pay to join a trusted network because participating provides more value than operating independently.
- Revenue sharing. Verification fees are distributed between issuers, ecosystem operators and potentially other participants.
- Marketplace fees. An operator maintains a catalog of trusted issuers and their credentials, charging for listings or introductions.
These models are particularly relevant to industry networks such as banking consortiums, telecom partnerships or professional qualification ecosystems.
You don't have to choose just one
A telecom could issue verified account ownership credentials, make them available through its existing app and participate in a network where other organizations pay to verify them.
A bank could use credentials to reduce internal ID verification costs while also issuing information that partners can reuse.
An ecosystem operator could combine membership fees with revenue sharing.
The right combination also depends on which parties carry the costs, obligations and liability associated with the credentials.
The key is to identify what each participant gains from trusted, reusable information and build a payment model around that value.
That's the broader commercial opportunity EUDI presents: not just changing how verified information is shared, but creating new ways for organizations to benefit from the trust they provide.
