Digital Identity In America: Series Overview

Digital identity is no longer an abstract debate. It is unfolding right now in America and abroad, across DMVs, airports, banks, legislatures, and smartphones. The question is no longer if digital identity will become a cornerstone of our lives, but how it will be built, who it will serve, and whether it will earn trust.

We believe digital identity must be usable, secure, private, and decentralized. To make that case, we’ve published an eight-part series exploring the foundations, policy momentum, technical underpinnings, privacy implications, and practical pathways for digital identity in the United States.

This overview serves as an executive guide to the series, highlighting key themes for policymakers, financial institutions, technologists, and civil society.

Why Digital Identity Matters Now

• Adoption is accelerating. Seventeen states now issue mobile driver’s licenses, TSA accepts them at over 250 airports, and private-sector services are expanding into identity verification.
• Policy is moving. From Utah’s SB 260 to the EU’s eIDAS 2.0 to the U.S. Supreme Court’s age verification ruling, governments are setting new expectations for digital identity.
• Technology is mature. Standards like W3C Verifiable Credentials, ISO 18013 series, and NIST SP 800-63-4 are converging into a workable ecosystem.
• AI is raising the stakes. Generative AI threatens to undermine legacy verification methods, making cryptographically anchored identity the only defensible model.
• Trust is fragile. Public confidence in both government and technology is low. Unless identity is designed for privacy and user control, adoption will stall.

Series at a Glance

1. Foundations of Digital Identity

We start with first principles. What is digital identity? Why has the internet historically relied on “borrowed” logins from big tech platforms?

Drawing from economic thinkers like Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Friedrich Hayek, we explore how identity functions as critical infrastructure and why decentralization offers a path to resilience, competition, and individual empowerment.

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2. Policy Momentum: Why Governments Care Now

From California’s DMV Wallet to Utah’s SB 260, U.S. states are leading. Federal agencies like DHS and NIST are piloting. The EU’s eIDAS 2.0 sets a global benchmark.

Policy is treating identity as infrastructure, embedding privacy and interoperability as public goods.

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3. The Technology Powering Digital Identity

In this post, we explore the technical backbone: verifiable credentials, decentralized identifiers, selective disclosure, and zero-knowledge proofs.

Real-world examples show how cryptography solves problems that passwords and scanned documents cannot.

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4. Privacy and User Control

Privacy is not a feature; it is the heart of digital identity. Groups like the ACLU and EFF warn that without safeguards, digital IDs could become tools of surveillance and exclusion.

This post humanizes the stakes, showing how people overshare today and how the combination of strong policy and technology together can protect autonomy.

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5. Practical Digital Identity in America

A wide-angle look at adoption, policy, and technology in the U.S. today. We explore the rise of mDLs, the impact of AI fraud, financial sector reforms, and the shared goals of usable, secure, private, and decentralized systems.

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6. Enabling Issuers of U.S. Digital Identity

Issuers are the foundation. DMVs lead, but vital records offices, veterans’ agencies, municipalities, and libraries also matter.

We outline what issuers need: new NIST guidance, wallet certification, independent audits, and governance to ensure cross-state trust.

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7. Verifiers: Building Trust at the Point of Use

Banks, agencies, and businesses are the gatekeepers. They need assurance of authenticity, revocation checks, and regulatory clarity.

We recommend plug-and-play standards, revocation infrastructure, and explicit regulatory endorsement.

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8. Digital Identity: End User Experience

The most important actor is the individual. Holders need identity that is convenient, private, and empowering. Wallets must be intuitive, inclusive, and transparent. Without holders’ trust and adoption, the entire ecosystem fails.

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Unifying Themes

Across all eight posts, a set of clear themes emerges:

1. Identity is infrastructure. Like roads or power grids, digital identity underpins everything else in society and the economy.
2. Trust is fragile. Without privacy, voluntariness, and transparency, adoption will fail.
3. AI raises urgency. Legacy verification methods are collapsing. Cryptographic credentials are the only sustainable path.
4. Compliance drives adoption. Regulators must endorse digital identity as valid for KYC, AML, sanctions, and age verification.
5. People must remain at the center. If digital identity doesn’t work for holders, it doesn’t work at all.

SpruceID’s Perspective

At SpruceID, we work at the intersection of technology, policy, and human experience. We help issuers launch wallets, verifiers adopt credentials, and holders take control of their data. We contribute to open standards and advocate for frameworks that are interoperable, privacy-preserving, and aligned with democratic values.

Our view is simple: digital identity is inevitable, but how it’s built is a choice. If we focus on usability, security, privacy, and decentralization, digital identity can strengthen democracy, modernize financial systems, and empower individuals. If we don’t, it risks becoming another tool of surveillance and exclusion.

The Call to Action

Digital identity is no longer a pilot. It is becoming public infrastructure. The U.S. now faces a choice:

• Enable issuers with clear requirements and certifications.
• Empower verifiers with standards and regulatory clarity.
• Center holders with wallets that deliver usability and privacy.

These are shared goals. They require coordination across states, federal agencies, private industry, and civil society. The time to align is now.

About SpruceID: SpruceID builds digital trust infrastructure for government. We help states and cities modernize identity, security, and service delivery — from digital wallets and SSO to fraud prevention and workflow optimization. Our standards-based technology and public-sector expertise ensure every project advances a more secure, interoperable, and citizen-centric digital future.