Digital identity has had a distribution problem for a long time.
Banks, governments, insurers, employers, universities, and many other organizations verify people and organizations every day. They perform onboarding checks, validate documents, assess risk, and establish trust. But in most cases, that verified identity data stays inside the organization that performed the check.
A bank may know that a customer has been identity-proofed. An employer may know that a person is an employee. A government may know that a credential is valid. But that trust rarely travels beyond the organization that created it.
That is starting to change.
*How Digital Identity Wallets Make Verified Data Portable *
As digital credentials move into widely available wallets, verified identity data becomes portable. A person can hold a credential in a wallet and present it when needed, allowing trusted information to move with the user rather than remaining locked inside the original issuer.
Google Wallet is an important signal because of its reach, and it helped bring this shift into focus. If credentials from banks and private issuers can be distributed into wallets that many users already have on their phones, the adoption barrier changes. But the bigger story extends far beyond Google Wallet. In Europe especially, certified EU Digital Identity Wallets and other digital identity wallets will also play an important role.
The strategic shift is broader: wallets are becoming the standard place where people carry reusable digital proof.
Verifiable Credentials Turn Identity Into Reusable Trust
For issuers, this changes the value of verified data.
Today, many organizations verify identity during onboarding and use that information only internally. In a wallet-based model, that same verified data can become a service. A bank, employer, university, or private issuer can provide a credential that the user can reuse with other parties.
Identity proofing becomes a reusable trust asset instead of a one-time onboarding exercise.
The hard part is no longer only:
“How do I get the user to prove who they are?”
It becomes:
“How do I turn a verified credential into the right access decision at the right moment?”
Why Verifiable Credentials Are Evidence, Not Authorization Decisions
A wallet can deliver trusted proof. A verifiable credential can confirm trusted facts about a person, organization, or application. But proof and authorization are not the same thing.
A credential provides trusted input. The authorization system still needs to evaluate context, policy, risk, delegation, and the action being requested.
That is where Curity fits.
As wallets become more widely deployed, organizations will need a reliable way to consume credentials and translate them into access decisions. This applies to human users, mobile apps, business clients, and AI agents.
The value is not just in storing credentials. The value is in using verified claims safely at runtime. This becomes even more important as software increasingly acts on behalf of people and organizations.
Wallets solve distribution. Verifiable credentials provide portable proof. Curity turns that proof into runtime access decisions.
Why Digital Identity Wallets Matter for AI Agents
An agent calling APIs, initiating payments, or performing regulated actions should not be trusted simply because it has a token.
Systems need to understand who the agent represents, what authority it has, and whether a particular action requires stronger proof.
In that world, identity cannot remain a one-time login event. It has to become a dynamic authorization signal.
Dynamic Authorization and Just-in-Time Trust
At this point, the required evidence may go beyond identity. Depending on the transaction, the authorization system may require evidence of authority, delegation, client integrity, or proof of possession. This becomes particularly important as AI agents begin acting on behalf of users and organizations.
For example, an AI agent might be allowed to perform low-risk tasks with an existing access token. But when the workflow reaches a sensitive action, the authorization server may need to challenge the client for additional evidence. That evidence could be a client attestation, or other proof-of-possession material such as a verifiable presentation from a wallet. Only after that evidence is validated should stronger access be granted.
Emerging OAuth work, such as client challenge flows, points to how this works in practice. This is the core idea behind just-in-time authorization: instead of forcing every client to present its strongest proof on every request, the authorization server dynamically demands additional evidence only when the context or transaction risk requires it. This makes access decisions adaptive, risk-aware, and aligned with the sensitivity of the transaction.
Layer
|
What it does
|
Why it matters
Wallet
|
Stores and presents credentials
|
Makes verified identity data portable
|
|
Verifiable credential
|
Provides trusted proof
|
Lets claims be reused beyond the original issuer
|
|
Authorization system
|
Evaluates policy, risk, context, and requested action
|
Turns proof into an access decision
|
|
Curity Identity Server
|
Takes a crucial role in the authorization system that consumes trusted claims and enables runtime authorization
|
Makes wallet-based trust actionable in APIs, apps, and agentic workflows
|
The Future of Digital Trust
The next phase of digital identity will not be defined by one wallet alone. It will be defined by an ecosystem of wallets, issuers, verifiers, and authorization systems working together.
Wallets make identity proof portable. Verifiable credentials make it reusable. Authorization makes it actionable. In an agentic world, that combination becomes essential.
Learn how Curity turns trusted credentials and other forms of evidence into runtime access decisions.
