Portemonnee — Dutch for wallet — is about a simple idea that is hard in practice: people should be able to use health and prevention services with a registered account, without handing over who they are, and without depending on a closed identity product from a large foreign technology company.
The issue
GIDS anonymous ID lets you create an account that stays private while still behaving like a normal registered user. It is built on self-sovereign identity and open standards (including W3C Verifiable Credentials), and it is already used in health promotion and prevention settings where people share sensitive information — Allesoverdrinken.nl and the WellData prevention data space.
Today those credentials are issued into Microsoft Authenticator. In user tests, people associated that app with work. Some also pointed to the changing geopolitical context. They still chose it, mainly because they already knew the brand and often already had the app on their phone.
That is the paradox Portemonnee starts from. Tools that actually increase digital autonomy — open-source wallets from parties such as Yivi or Sphereon — are unfamiliar, and unfamiliar often means untrusted. Familiar closed products are trusted even when they sit awkwardly next to self-determination. We want the first kind of tool, with enough trust that people will actually use it.
Objectives
The project asks which factors create trust in identity tools that give people more control, and applies that knowledge in a working solution. In public terms, we aim to understand trust, move GIDS anonymous ID to a Dutch open-source wallet, try the new setup with people, publish a design guideline, and share the findings.
The technical side is aligned with the open standards also used in Europe’s digital identity work (including eIDAS 2.0 and EU Digital Identity Wallets). The harder part is human: how a new wallet earns the confidence that a well-known authenticator already has.
Work packages
- Understand trust. Map what research already says about adopting digital identity tools, especially in health promotion and prevention.
- Move the wallet. Make GIDS anonymous ID available on a Dutch open-source wallet, documented as a reusable open-source reference implementation.
- Try it with people. Pilot the new setup with users of Allesoverdrinken.nl and/or WellData, and listen to what actually builds or breaks trust.
- Share results. Publish a design guideline and write up the findings for a wider research and practice audience.
