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The Story of FIDES

FIDES is a global community initiative that supports the real-world exploration and adoption of digital wallets and verifiable credentials — for people, organizations, and things.

The community brings together public and private actors to collaborate on open, interoperable trust infrastructure that enables scalable use cases across domains.

From identity and organizational compliance to digital product passports and digital trade documents, FIDES provides the space, tools, and coordination to explore, align, and test real-world applications — together.

The shared purpose of the FIDES Community is articulated in the FIDES Manifesto: a public commitment to openness, inclusiveness, and real-world impact. The community is open to anyone who aligns with these values — whether policy-makers, developers, trust service providers, or public sector innovators.

The FIDES Community emphasizes action. The focus lies on practical implementation — using interoperable standards and shared tooling to make digital wallets and verifiable credentials tangible in the real world.

Across the broader ecosystem, numerous valuable initiatives address digital trust through standards development, policy frameworks, or research pilots. Yet these efforts often remain fragmented — with diverging interpretations, models, or demos. The FIDES Community aims to complement such work by offering a shared, open environment where different approaches can be aligned, tested, and made practically interoperable.

As digital wallets and credential standards move toward global adoption, a number of important challenges remain — from privacy concerns such as the phone-home problem, to governance issues around trust registries, wallet invocation, and user control.

Rather than hiding these complexities, the FIDES Community provides space to make them visible.By surfacing open questions and dilemmas, broader groups — including developers, policymakers, and civil society — can understand what’s at stake and help shape future solutions. This transparency strengthens trust and helps guide the ecosystem toward more inclusive and balanced outcomes.

To ensure continuity and coordination, the community is currently facilitated by FIDES Labs BV, a private company founded by the original initiators of the ecosystem. FIDES Labs is neutral, non-competing, and ecosystem-driven — it does not offer a wallet or compete with technology providers, but supports the community through infrastructure, tools, and facilitation.

FIDES is not a fixed-term project or one-off initiative.It is regarded as a long-term commitment to building and maintaining a trustworthy foundation for digital interactions — one that evolves as technologies mature, standards develop, and new use cases emerge.

This journey does not end with a pilot or a policy cycle. It continues through ongoing collaboration, shared infrastructure, and the willingness to keep improving — together.

Learn more about how FIDES works:

  • Organization
    How the FIDES Community is structured and facilitated — including the role of FIDES Labs
  • Community & Lab Coordination
    How labs and tracks are coordinated and supported within the community.
  • Plugfests
    Short-term, open testing events anyone in the community can initiate.
  • News & Events
    What’s happening in and around the FIDES community — including DIIP meetups.
  • Contact
    Want to get involved, start a track, or ask a question? Reach out to the FIDES team.