Glossary: EAA, eIDAS 2.0 and the EU digital identity wallet
By Stephan Bergmann, hashID. Updated
The terms around electronic attestations of attributes, each in one or two sentences. Every term has its own link, so you can point someone straight to it.
- ARF
- Architecture and Reference Framework: the technical blueprint for the EU digital identity wallets, maintained by the European Commission with the member states.
- Attribute
- A characteristic, quality, right or permission of a person, a company or an object, such as a membership or a qualification.
- Authentic source
- An official register that is the primary source for an attribute, such as a civil register or a company register.
- Business Wallet
- The European Business Wallet: a wallet for companies and public bodies, proposed by the European Commission in November 2025. It is a proposal, not yet law.
- EAA
- Electronic attestation of attributes: "an attestation in electronic form that allows attributes to be authenticated" (eIDAS 2.0, Article 3, point 44).
- eIDAS 2.0
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1183, which updated the EU rules on electronic identification and trust services and introduced the EU digital identity wallets.
- EUDI Wallet
- European Digital Identity Wallet: an app in which a person keeps identity data and attestations and shares them selectively. Every member state must offer one by 24 December 2026.
- HAIP
- High Assurance Interoperability Profile: an OpenID Foundation profile that fixes the options of OpenID4VCI and OpenID4VP for wallets that need a high level of assurance.
- Holder
- The person who keeps an attestation in their wallet and decides what to show.
- Issuer
- The organisation, or a service acting for it, that signs an attestation and sends it to the wallet.
- mDL
- Mobile driving licence: a driving licence in the mdoc format of ISO/IEC 18013-5.
- mdoc
- The data format of ISO/IEC 18013-5, built for checks in person, phone to phone, even without internet.
- OpenID4VCI
- OpenID for Verifiable Credential Issuance: the protocol a wallet uses to receive an attestation from an issuer.
- OpenID4VP
- OpenID for Verifiable Presentations: the protocol a verifier uses to ask a wallet for attributes.
- PID
- Person identification data: the identity data, such as name and date of birth, that a member state issues to the wallet.
- Pub-EAA
- An electronic attestation of attributes issued by or on behalf of a public sector body responsible for an authentic source.
- QEAA
- Qualified electronic attestation of attributes: issued by a qualified trust service provider and meeting the requirements of Annex V of eIDAS 2.0. Same legal effect as a lawfully issued paper attestation.
- QTSP
- Qualified trust service provider: a provider that its national supervisory body has granted qualified status, listed in the trusted lists.
- Relying party
- An organisation that asks a wallet for attributes and checks them. Also called verifier.
- SD-JWT
- Selective Disclosure JWT, published as RFC 9901: a signed token from which the holder can reveal single claims.
- SD-JWT VC
- The attestation format built on SD-JWT, made for checks online. Still an IETF draft, used by the EU wallets.
- Selective disclosure
- The holder shows only the attributes a check needs, for example the type of membership without the member number.
- Status list
- A list published by the issuer that verifiers check to see whether an attestation was revoked.
- Trusted list
- The list each member state publishes of its qualified trust service providers and their qualified services.
- TSP
- Trust service provider: a company that provides electronic trust services, such as signatures, seals or attestations.