The Linux Foundation has announced plans to work on a new initiative called the OpenWallet Foundation that’ll basically work to support interoperability across different digital wallets all built from one open-source codebase. The OWF will also be featured in a keynote presentation at the Open Source Summit in Europe on September 14.
The mission of this new initiative, as outlined by the foundation itself is to develop a “secure, multi-purpose open source engine” that can be used by anyone to build interoperable wallets while also aiming to set best practices for digital wallet practices through “collaboration on secure code for use as a starting point”.
The Linux Foundation also pointed out that the OpenWallet Foundation (OWF) doesn’t intend to build a wallet itself, offer credentials or create any new standards. The community will instead focus on building an open source engine that can be used by organisations and companies can use to develop their own wallets.
Europe is already working to make messaging interoperability a thing in the continent and regulatory bodies across the world are trying to improve competition by enforcing interoperability across multiple systems. In such a time an open-source digital wallet platform will go a long way in improving the current wallet situation which is spread across multiple vendors like Apple, Google, PayPal and Venmo all competing for the top spot.
This in addition to the new advent of crypto and NFT wallets often based on the blockchain is rapidly opening new use-cases for digital wallets and the requirement for good security practices around them. With concepts like the Metaverse on the horizon, interoperability will also be relied upon heavily to allow users to make payments across multiple virtual platforms without having to have separate wallets for each one of them.
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