Building EU Digital Trust - An Explainer

For numerous organizations, including government authorities and private entities, to achieve Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP) status necessary for issuing Verifiable Credentials (VCs) under the EU’s eIDAS regulation is a difficult. Becoming a QTSP internally presents significant operational challenges, requiring complex compliance with mandatory standards for advanced cryptographic systems, interoperability schemas, and strict GDPR mandates concerning selective disclosure and real-time revocation. To bypass this resource-intensive internal burden, We identify four strategic alternatives, ranging from expensive, slow consultancy engagement to highly capital-intensive business acquisition. The analysis consistently favours the cloud services integration model, which offers inherent scalability, cost efficiency, and simplified regulatory compliance by utilizing specialised third-party components. Choosing the correct strategy depends on an organization’s internal resources, tolerance for third-party dependency, and the importance of rapid market deployment within the emerging EUDI Wallet ecosystem. (PS. I do use my AI friends to explain this in audio format.)