If it is true, as it is true, that balance sheets are made at the end of the year, this also applies to the Spid, the Public Digital Identity System active since 2016.
Time to take stock but also to forecast, because by mid-2024 the government is expected to launch It Walletthe digital wallet that should resolve the existing dichotomy between Spid and Cie, proposing itself as a single digital identity.
Let’s first see the Spid numbers in 2023, and then find out what It Wallet will be.
Spid numbers
Recent research by the Digital Identity Observatory of the School of Management of the Polytechnic of Milan has provided us with some numbers on the use of SPID.
The Public Digital Identity System which allows us to access online public administration services has reached 36.4 million Italians, equal to 61% of the populationand 73% of over 18s. Added to them are 13,000 minors.
Total accesses exceeded one billion, with an average usage of 25 accesses per user.
However, the Pnrr’s goal, set at 42.3 million digital identities by June 2026, seems distant, especially due to the slowdown in the growth rate. In fact, the growth of the SPID from January to November 2023 recorded +9%, compared to +23% in 2022 compared to 2021.
Cie data
Still returning to the dichotomy we mentioned at the beginning, the Observatory’s research also provided data on the growth of the Cie, the electronic identity card.
39.3 million Italians own it, with a growth rate of +23%. However, the digital version (which is enabled via the CieID app) is still little used: only 4 million users have used it to access online services in the last 10 months.
The Spid-Cie dichotomy
The more or less equivalent data regarding Spid and Cie show how digital identity is – in a difficult way – split into two often overlapping devices.
We discussed the problem in an article published last February, and throughout 2023 the question remained open.
The undersecretary to the Prime Minister with responsibility for technological innovation, Alessio Butti, had said that the objective would be to “gradually turn off Spid, which collects a series of digital identities, and facilitate the action of our businesses and citizens with the Public Administration. We will all have to start turning off the SPID and have the electronic identity card as our only digital identity.”
There was then a correction, also requested by the managers who provide the Spid service, and the undersecretary had more generally hoped for the achievement of a single digital identity, in the form of an app. But, we wondered, how would it actually work?
It Wallet
The answer to this last question seems to have finally arrived.
The government is reportedly working on It Wallet, a digital wallet that is expected to be integrated into the IO app.
It Wallet will contain all the documents currently found in the electronic identity card, but also the driving license, tax code and electoral card.
An initial version of It Wallet should be available by mid-2024 for everyonewhile already at the beginning of the new year a small number of users should experiment with the application.
But what will remain of Spid and Cie? Both will most likely not be abandoned, but will flow into the It Wallet digital wallet. However, the technical details should be defined in the coming weeks.
The European digital wallet
Regardless of how our IT Wallet will work in detail, it is highly likely that the Italian digital wallet (which would be the first in the EU) will be short-lived.
In fact, the introduction of the European Digital Identity Wallet in Europe is expected by 2026the common digital identity that will be in the pockets of all citizens of our continent.
As can be read on the page dedicated to the future document, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen was already thinking about the wallet in September 2020: “The Commission will propose a secure European electronic identity. One that we trust and that every citizen can use anywhere in Europe to do anything from paying taxes to renting a bike. A technology with which we can control what data is used and how.”
