Trusted Webshops

This Lab explores the question: “How can the upcoming EU Digital Wallet and attestations improve the online shopping experience for both customers and webshop owners?”

In 2023, the Dutch Landelijk Meldpunt Internetoplichting (LMIO) took down 1,000 fake webshops—an increase of 30% compared to 2022. The average loss per victim rose by 20% to €350. Yet, this may only scratch the surface, as 40% of Dutch consumers believe there is a stigma around admitting they’ve been scammed online. Identifying fraudulent websites remains challenging, often requiring users to perform manual, time-consuming checks.

What if these verification steps could be seamlessly integrated into the shopping experience, empowering users to make safer choices without disruption?

2024 | THE NETHERLANDS

Objectives

The involved parties want to test whether and how the combination of decentralized identifiers, verifiable credentials in conjunction with wallets for organizations (legal entities) and wallets for natural persons offer can help foster a safer eCommerce environment and overall enhance the reliability and trustworthiness of online transactions for businesses and consumers alike.
The objectives include:
- Set-up of 4 test webshops to experience the improvement of the online shopping experiences by allowing users and websites to mutually authenticate themselves during the login process, using their wallets.
This lab laid the foundation for advanced features like selective disclosure of personal identification data, OpenID Federation, etc.
Deliverables

- Set-up of 3 hosted test webshops with real branding;
- Set-up of 1 hosted test webshop with a "fake" profile based on one of the 3 test webshops;
- Delivery of hosted organization wallets for the webshop merchants matching the "Company Passport" profile. The organization wallets implemented the role of Holder and Verifier;
- Delivery of a hosted organization wallet (Thuiswinkel Waarborg) that issues credentials to the webshops. This organization wallet implemented the role of Holder and Issuer;
- Delivery of personal wallet (IOS/Android) that can be used in the use case by the consumer;
Features

·      Source code published in publicly accessible Github repositories
·      To promote interoperability, the DIIP V3 (Decentralized Identity Interop Profile) is used;
·      Schemes for credentials are not expected to be formal and production ready;
·      Keys and seals are not (paid) production versions, but the technical formats are equal;
·      Interoperability specifications for organizational wallets are currently specified in the CompanyPassport project. This is work in progress.

Total budget

€45,000.00

Total budget for 2 tech providers to develop 4 test websites and implement 4 organizational wallets. This lab was funded by the Dutch Tax Authority and Dutch Camber of Commerce. All involved parties also contributed to the Lab with in-kind cofunding and expertise.