Glossary
EUDI Wallet
The EU Digital Identity Wallet lets people in the EU identify themselves and store digital credentials. It is a separate initiative from the digital euro.
Definition
EUDI Wallet
Also written as: EU Digital Identity Wallet, European Digital Identity Wallet
The EUDI Wallet is included in this glossary mainly because people keep assuming it is the digital euro, or that one requires the other. It is neither.
What it is
The European Digital Identity Wallet lets people in the EU securely identify themselves when accessing public and private services, and store and present digital documents — things like a mobile driving licence or an education credential — from their phone.
Its legal basis is Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2024/1183, which establishes the European Digital Identity Framework. Member States are to make wallets available to every citizen, resident and business by the end of 2026.
The design principles are worth noting because they rhyme with the digital euro's: user control over what is shared, availability across the whole Union, and open-source licensing for transparency.
How it differs from the digital euro
| EUDI Wallet | Digital euro | |
|---|---|---|
| What it holds | Identity and credentials | Money |
| Who issues it | Member States | The Eurosystem |
| Legal basis | Regulation (EU) 910/2014, amended by 2024/1183 | Regulation still in the EU legislative process |
| Timing | Wallets available by end of 2026 | Pilot H2 2027; launch targeted ~2029 |
They are two separate EU initiatives with two separate legal instruments, two separate timelines and two separate purposes. One proves who you are. The other is money.
Why they get conflated
Both are EU-level digital infrastructure, both live on your phone, both are described as "wallets", and both arrive in roughly the same era. That is enough for the confusion.
It is a reasonable question whether digital identity infrastructure and digital currency infrastructure will eventually interact. But that is speculation, and this site does not deal in speculation. What is established today: they are distinct projects, and nothing in the digital euro's published design makes it dependent on the EUDI Wallet.
Sources
Related reading
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Retail CBDC is central bank digital money for the public; wholesale CBDC is for institutions settling between themselves. The digital euro is retail.
Acquiring PSP
An acquiring PSP serves business digital euro users — managing merchant accounts and the acceptance solutions through which businesses take payments.
Alias
An alias is a pseudonymous identifier — such as a phone number — standing in for a digital euro account, so you can be paid without revealing your DEAN.
BEAN
BEAN is the Basic Euro Account Number — positions 5 to 18 of a DEAN, the indicator digit plus the 13-digit serial.