The OpenID Foundation congratulates the

The award was presented by KuppingerCole, one of the most respected analyst and research firms in the identity and access management space, who commented that AuthZEN that it “stood out among submissions and made a strong, positive impression” and demonstrated “a high level of quality, innovation, and dedication.”

The award was accepted on behalf of the working group by co-chairs David Brossard and Alex Olivier.  

David said: “Authentication has been well served by open standards for years, but authorization has always lagged behind. AuthZEN exists to close that gap. Building an interoperability standard from the ground up takes sustained commitment from a broad community, and the AuthZEN community has delivered. This recognition belongs to everyone who made that possible.”

Alex added: “This award reflects the work of the entire working group, a broad community that chose interoperability over proprietary lock-in. And it lands at exactly the right time: as AI agents begin acting on our behalf, a common standard for authorization is how the industry keeps the agentic era secure.”

Continuing a track record of excellence

This award continues a proud tradition of EIC recognition for the OpenID Foundation’s work.

In 2024, the Foundation’s OpenID for Verifiable Credentials work took the EIC award in the Future Technologies and Standards category. In 2018, the OpenID Certification Programme won the EIC Award for Best Innovation. And in 2012, OpenID Connect itself won the same award. 

Gail Hodges, Executive Director of the OpenID Foundation, said: “AuthZEN’s recognition at EIC 2026 adds another chapter to a proud story of innovation across the OIDF community. This is a highly deserved acknowledgment of the group’s collaborative work that has put interoperable authorization on the map. We congratulate everyone who has contributed to the AuthZEN WG, and we look forward to seeing what comes next.”

About the OpenID Foundation

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, OAuth2 – the FAPI standard for interoperable, high security – has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue that enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.

The post OpenID AuthZEN wins EIC 2026 Outstanding Project Recognition first appeared on OpenID Foundation.

Written by Olaf Grewe, Head of Product, Sign-up and Log-in at National Australia Bank, and Co-Chair of the ADT CG 

This was the question explored at an Innovation Day organised by the OpenID Foundation’s Australian Digital Trust Community Group (ADT CG) earlier this year. 

Hosted by Mallesons in Sydney, Australia, the event brought together a broad mix of expertise from across Australia’s public and private sector, with international perspectives also represented. It explored digital identity frameworks, Open Banking, education, and emerging issues around death and the digital estate.

Digital identity is most commonly framed as a technology or compliance challenge, a matter of standards, architecture, and regulation. But that framing can obscure a deeper problem, that even well designed systems fail to deliver their potential if the underlying incentive structures are misaligned. The ADT CG’s Innovation Day started from that premise, that the structural and economic conditions shaping a digital ID ecosystem matter just as much as its technical design.

Why another lens is needed

Like telecommunications networks, energy grids, or payments infrastructure, digital ID only delivers value when many different participants work together. However, those participants have different commercial interests, different risk appetites, and different incentives to invest, optimising for their own position, rather than the health of the ecosystem. This means that while an individual organisation can make perfectly rational decisions for itself, the overall outcome can still be far below the potential of the digital ID ecosystem. 

The Innovation Day was designed to bring these tensions (or second order effects) to the surface, rather than push towards a single policy or technical fix.

The event combined presentations, open discussion, and structured breakout sessions. Using established economic concepts, participants examined in the breakout sessions how trust frameworks, market dynamics, behavioural incentives, and governance models shape digital ID ecosystems, as well as where they tend to go wrong. Expertise from the National Australia Bank, the University of Sydney Business School, and the Australian National University Research School of Economics was leveraged to prepare the sessions. 

What the workshop found

The practical lesson that emerged was equally clear – digital ID systems are more likely to work well for everyone when participants have genuine choice and can assess quality. Where competition can do its job, it should be allowed to. Where it cannot, due to coordination failures or market structure, targeted intervention is needed to address the specific problems that markets will not resolve on their own.

While technical standards are important, they are not enough. How a digital ID ecosystem is governed, and how it distributes costs and rewards among participants, will be just as important in determining its long-term social and economic value.

Why this matters

The ADT CG’s Innovation Day addressed that gap directly, complementing the technical and regulatory perspectives that typically dominate digital ID policy with an economic welfare perspective. The paper that has come out of the workshop brings together multiple economic perspectives into a single framework, giving policymakers, regulators, and practitioners a more rigorous basis for assessing design choices and their knock-on effects. The OpenID Foundation has been central to enabling this kind of work

The OpenID Foundation’s role

Community groups are an important part of how the OpenID Foundation engages beyond its core standards work. The ADT CG brings together Australian practitioners to examine how global standards and frameworks apply in local contexts, and to generate insights that can inform the Foundation’s work globally.

The death and digital estate discussion that featured in this Innovation Day is an area where the Foundation is also active globally, through its dedicated community group. The Australian event is a good example of how these workstreams can learn from each other, combining expertise across technical, legal, and economic domains.

ADT CG spokesperson quote: “What came through clearly on the day was that this is not a technology problem. Individual organisations are making sensible decisions for themselves, but the ecosystem as a whole is not reaching its potential. It requires deliberate design and we are excited to provide another lens through which Australia’s digital ID ecosystem can be viewed.”       

Executive Director Gail Hodges added: “The Australian Digital Trust Community Group is playing a valuable role convening thought leaders in the market to tackle tough problems that require multi-stakeholder solutions.” 

The paper detailing the full findings of the Innovation Day is available here: Workshop Summary Digital ID Economics OIDF.

About the OpenID Foundation

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, OAuth2 – the FAPI standard for interoperable, high security – has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue that enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.

To learn more about conformance testing and self-certification, please visit the OpenID Foundation’s FAQ section.

The post Insights from the OIDF’s Australia Innovation Day first appeared on OpenID Foundation.

Representing the OpenID Foundation, Executive Director Gail Hodges made two presentations on day one of the event, covering the global state of digital identity and the standards landscape, trust framework mapping. The OpenID Foundation’s ITU-T Liaison, Bjorn Hjelm, presented remotely on day two in the AI for Good session covering the OpenID Foundation’s work on identity for agentic AI.

This blog post summarises the key points from those sessions.

The global state of digital identity

In her first session, Human-Centric Digital Identity: Overview and State of Play, Gail Hodges noted that more than 60 countries now treat digital identity as critical Digital Public Infrastructure. Verifiable credential deployments are live in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, India, and Switzerland (in beta), with the EU on track to launch its digital identity wallet by end 2026 and the Western Balkans expected to follow. Approximately 43 countries are issuing or actively planning to issue verifiable credentials.

The reasons governments are investing are consistent: equity and inclusion, economic growth, cross-border trade, health services, saving time and money, and averting cybercrime – estimated to cost the global economy between $1 and $10 trillion. In 2023, most national identity models were centralised. By 2026, a clearer pattern has developed. Countries are building on foundational identity infrastructure to issue verifiable credentials held in user-controlled wallets. These are digitally signed, tamper evident statements that allow holders to share only what is needed, such as confirming they are over 18 without revealing a date of birth. 

The standards landscape

Gail’s first session also covered the standards landscape, noting that the Foundation’s OpenID for Verifiable Credentials suite – OID4VCI, OID4VP, and the High Assurance Interoperability Profile (HAIP) – has been adopted as the technical foundation for the EU Digital Identity Wallet, trusted by the EU and its 27 member states, with the We by stern Balkans and other jurisdictions following suit.

Since December 2025, ISO and the OpenID Foundation have been conducting joint due diligence on where to host work that can support both the ISO 18013-5 and OpenID4VP presentation protocols in a harmonized solution, with more information forthcoming. 

Separately, the Foundation has launched an accreditation programme for ecosystem testing, with MOU signatories including FIDO Alliance, Kantara Initiative, FIME, Raidiam, TrustID Solutions, and BixeLab. The Foundation is working with the European Commission, NIST, the Australian Government, and California on conformance programmes.

Last but not least, jurisdictions that consider verifiable credentials may also want to consider the optimal standard for discovery. OpenID Federation 1.0, has been selected by EDUGain, the Italian Government, and the Bank of International Settlements for Project Aperta, a cross-border open data initiative in trade finance. Federation includes use of the ITU-T’s own x509 but it allows for greater flexibility to support new requirements.

Trust Frameworks – the policy layer

Gail’s second session, Trust Framework Mapping and SIDI Hub, addressed why the policy and governance layer is as important as the technical one. Trust frameworks define the rules and policies that allow users, organisations, services, and devices to rely on one another, but they must reflect local legal systems, civil registration infrastructure, institutional arrangements, and the role of the private sector.

The SIDI Hub has conducted original trust framework analysis across more than ten countries, including the UK, EU, US, Canada, Singapore, Sweden, Japan, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. Working with Fraunhofer, it is developing a comparison tool for policy makers, GovTech teams, and private sector organisations building for multiple markets.

The session also presented a worked financial services example: the NIST NCCoE SP 1800-42A publication on mobile Driver’s Licences, developed through 11 interoperability events involving state issuers, banks, digital platforms, and the OpenID Foundation. Four jurisdictions, including the US, EU, Australia, and New Zealand, are aligning on financial institution compliance through protocol level metadata covering assurance levels, proofing methods, and authentication types.

Agentic AI – identity and delegation

Bjorn Hjelm’s session addressed identity and authorisation challenges for autonomous AI systems, drawing on the AIIM Community Group‘s 2025 whitepaper Identity Management for Agentic AI. Existing frameworks can support current agent use cases, including agents working within a single organisation or helping users access their own data, with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) – the leading standard for connecting AI models to external tools.

As AI systems move toward greater autonomy, those frameworks face new challenges around delegated authority across networks of connected agents. The OpenID Foundation has been developing the OpenID Connect Authority Claims Extension for on-behalf-of delegated authorisation that can also support AI systems. The specification supports use cases including AI-driven identity, the use cases supported in the Death and Digital Estate (DADE) community group, and age assurance.

Continuing the conversation

The OpenID Foundation will continue to engage with ITU-T and the broader international community as digital identity deployments scale globally and AI systems become more autonomous. The Foundation’s work is open to participation through working groups, community groups, and conformance programmes. 

Those wishing to engage are encouraged to get in touch: help@oidf.org  

About the OpenID Foundation

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, OAuth2 – the FAPI standard for interoperable, high security – has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue that enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.

To learn more about conformance testing and self-certification, please visit the OpenID Foundation’s FAQ section.

The post OIDF presents at ITU-T workshop on digital ID and agentic AI first appeared on OpenID Foundation.

• International Government Assurance (iGov) Profile for OAuth 2.0: https://openid.net/specs/openid-igov-oauth2-1_0-ID2.html 

• Approve – 68 votes
• Object — 2 votes
• Abstain – 35 votes

The post Implementer’s Draft of International Government Assurance (iGov) Profile for OAuth 2.0 Approved first appeared on OpenID Foundation.

About The OpenID Foundation (OIDF)

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, the Financial Grade API has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue to enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.

The post Notice of Vote to Approve Proposed Errata to OpenID Identity Assurance Specifications first appeared on OpenID Foundation.

About The OpenID Foundation (OIDF)

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, the Financial Grade API has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue to enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.

The post  OpenID Connect Advanced Syntax for Claims (ASC) 1.0 Implementer’s Draft Approved first appeared on OpenID Foundation.

The OIDF Liaison Policy is a new policy and establishes the framework by which OIDF enters into, manages, and, where necessary, terminates formal liaison relationships with liaison partners, and explains the practices and procedures that govern the OIDF participants in those relationships. The primary objectives of this new policy were to formally document  the implicit processes that have been implemented under the Liaison Committee for years, and add in lifecycle management of liaison roles and partners to ensure ongoing accuracy and appropriate partner and liaison support over time. 

The OIDF Liaison Committee is tasked with reviewing and approving liaison relationships, associated documents and the liaison representative from OIDF. Until now, the Liaison Committee has consisted of the current Executive Committee member and Working Group co-chairs. However, one update resulting from this new policy is the addition of Community Group co-chairs to the Liaison Committee which will allow them to propose and have a voice in liaisons aligned with their work.

The OIDF Liaison Policy was formally approved by the Executive Committee at the May 7, 2026 meeting and is effective immediately. It has been published in full on the OIDF website here: https://openid.net/policies/.

We encourage every member, contributor and participant to take a few minutes to review the new policy, so that they’re familiar with the updated framework going forward. 

OIDF staff will be coordinating with current OIDF group co-chairs and active liaison representatives to ensure all liaisons are aligned to the new policy, and to address any gaps in the weeks and months ahead.

If you have any questions, concerns or feedback, please share them with us via help@oidf.org. 

Thank you for your continued support and contributions to the OpenID Foundation.

About The OpenID Foundation (OIDF)

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, the Financial Grade API has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue to enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.

The post OIDF has implemented a new Liaison Policy effective immediately first appeared on OpenID Foundation.

When it was first introduced, its purpose was to provide a common framework for how we work together, ensuring expectations are clear and consistent for every participant, across every working group and community group. As our community has grown and evolved, it became clear that the original policy would benefit from additional guidance, particularly around how concerns are raised, reviewed, and resolved, and the steps OIDF will take to ensure our community standards are upheld for everyone. 

This blog is to inform the community that the OIDF Groups, Activities, & Events Code of Conduct Policy has been updated and was formally approved by the Board at the April 20, 2026 Board meeting. It is effective immediately. It can also be found on the OIDF website here: https://openid.net/policies/.

The updated Groups, Activities, & Events Code of Conduct Policy primarily adds Section 5. This new section provides contributors, participants, the Board, the Executive Committee, and staff with clear guidance on how concerns can be raised, how they are reviewed, and what to expect from the process, including how situations are handled in real time, how post-event concerns are followed up, and how complaints are processed. This ensures that every participant can feel confident that any situation will be managed consistently, fairly, and with care.

We encourage every member to take a few minutes to read the updated policy in detail so that you’re familiar going forward.

Every member of our community has a role to play in upholding the standards that make OIDF what it is. Taking a few minutes to read the updated policy is the best place to start. 

If you have any questions, concerns or feedback, please send to help@oidf.org. 

Thank you for your continued support and contributions to the OpenID Foundation.

About The OpenID Foundation (OIDF)

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, the Financial Grade API has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue to enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.

The post The OIDF Groups, Activities, & Events Code of Conduct Policy has been updated – here’s what you need to know first appeared on OpenID Foundation.

About The OpenID Foundation (OIDF)

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, the Financial Grade API has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue to enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.

The post Notice of Vote to Approve Proposed Errata to OpenID Connect for Identity Assurance 1.0 first appeared on OpenID Foundation.

About The OpenID Foundation (OIDF)

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, the Financial Grade API has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue to enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.

The post OpenID Federation 1.1 Final Specifications Approved first appeared on OpenID Foundation.