FAQ

UWI is designed to embed into enterprises’ existing applications and systems. We recognize the importance of balancing highly specific functionality with enabling businesses to tailor to their particular needs. We are addressing this balance through multiple fronts.

First, we have identified a common set of features based on broad market signals gathered from discussions with a diverse set of businesses across multiple industries. Second, through engagement with associations and standards bodies – Open Wallet Foundation, WEF, and industry bodies – we have identified additional commonalities across industries. These features form the basis for our early product backlog.

We are continuing to refine our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) based on insights we are gaining from our ongoing discussions and market participation. This will allow UWI to be broadly applicable but easily configurable to meet the needs of each business.

The UWI would involve no sharing of any proprietary business data or competitive intelligence. It would instead give control of consumer data back to the consumer to whom it rightfully belongs. The consumer can decide to permission their data with organizations to enable them to create hyper customized products and offers for the consumer. This will help mitigate consumer’s privacy concerns and enable them to share data about themselves, their behaviors, and preferences more freely.

From an enterprise perspective they get access to more accurate data straight from the source (i.e. consumer) instead of depending on third parties and are saved the costs and risks around acquiring and maintaining consumer data.

UWI offer enterprises a new channel through which they can now get access to reliable, real-time data straight out of the consumers’ wallet, which in a traditional setting could be held by competitors. This enables enterprises to direct their focus towards gaining valuable insights and intelligence, allowing them to enhance their products and offers, to drive greater revenue and profitability.

UWI is built with a steadfast commitment to data privacy and security, adapting to the ever-changing regulatory environment worldwide. Here’s how UWI achieves to enable a high level of privacy and trust with adequate security, together with the flexibility to implement regulatory requirements of specific countries:

1. User Empowerment: Individuals maintain complete control over their data, deciding what is shared and with whom. Individuals interacting with the UWI will be able to decide where their data is stored, whether on their own device or with individually hosted cloud-based agents. This focus on consent, data minimization, and user rights ensures compliance with major regulations like GDPR and others, while also preparing for future privacy laws.

2. Secure Data Storage: On the UWI, Credentials and Tokens containing PII data cannot be accessed by unauthorised providers, including the storage providers. While the data is in transit, for example, exchanged between holder and verifier it is encrypted. Where the data resides, for example in a holder’s app or cloud agent, it is stored in secure enclaves on iOS and Android devices or on Cloud HSM solutions. Sensitive information is never exposed on a blockchain or public registry.

3. Privacy Event Response: If privacy is suspected to be compromised, UWI’s immutable data trail allows for investigation and verification. In such an event, data portability enables seamless transfer to another service provider. The wallet holder has the right to stop providing data to any counterparties, agents and technology providers at any time.

4. Open Standards and Global Trust: Accenture’s and NTT Digital’s involvement in the Linux Open Wallet Foundation and other decentralized identity communities strengthens UWI’s dedication to promote interoperability and adoption of secure digital wallet solutions. It is ensured UWI is built according to shared guidelines created by the ecosystem. Participating platforms must surface any privacy disclosures during interactions with individuals and should attempt to reduce and limit tracking and correlation.

5. Regulatory Readiness: UWI is designed to comply with existing regulations and is adaptable to meet new ones as they emerge such as eIDAS. The paradigm of “User Empowerment” described in point 1, allows the UWI to segment and isolate data based on jurisdictional requirements, ensuring that data from different regions is stored and processed separately where necessary. This prevents data from being inadvertently transferred or accessed across borders, aiding compliance with varying data protection laws.

UWI’s technology-agnostic, interoperable design, coupled with a strong focus on user control and data security, creates a robust solution for navigating the complex and evolving landscape of data privacy regulations across various geographies and industries.

UWI introduces a suite of distinctive features that provide users with capabilities they have not encountered elsewhere. The underlying solution architecture of UWI is designed with a clear focus on delivering key functionalities, which users will begin to experience immediately.

• Convenience: UWI enables a frictionless user experience by allowing individuals to seamlessly share their data across multiple applications and enterprises. This eliminates the need to repeatedly input or share information for every interaction, streamlining processes and reducing friction across touchpoints.

• Control: UWI puts control and data sovereignty back into the hands of their rightful owners, empowering them with the ability to granularly control which specific data elements are shared with whom, for which use cases, and for what duration. This control is exercised with full, explicit user consent, ensuring transparency and confidence in data handling.

• Monetization: UWI opens new revenue streams for users by enabling them to receive i.e., tailored offers from data consumers; such as organizations looking to leverage user data for AI model training or other data-driven initiatives. This fosters a mutually beneficial ecosystem where data is actively used to drive value creation for all parties involved.

• Consent Management & Minimal Data Sharing: UWI offers users a powerful consent management feature, allowing them to view, modify, or withdraw previously granted consents for data sharing with any participant. This ensures full transparency and control over data sharing decisions at every step enabling a secure and privacy-preserving exchange of data.

• Personalization: In UWI-embedded ecosystem, users can experience highly personalized services from service providers within the network. By leveraging data shared across the ecosystem, businesses can tailor offerings based on a deeper understanding of user preferences, enabling a more personalized, engaging, and relevant experience.

The UWI platform is designed to be flexible and accommodate a variety of user roles, each with their own onboarding process.

Wallet Holders (Consumers)

Wallet holders begin their UWI journey by acquiring a UWI-compatible wallet, either by downloading a dedicated app or integrating UWI functionality into an existing wallet. They are then guided through a simple process, which may include identity verification for enhanced security. Importantly, users are provided with transparent information about data collection practices and are empowered to give their explicit consent. Many wallet applications will also offer tutorials or interactive guides to help users understand the platform’s features and navigate their new digital wallet with ease.

Data Providers (Businesses/Organizations)

For organizations serving as data providers within the UWI ecosystem, onboarding is centered around seamless integration with the platform. This is facilitated through UWI’s APIs and SDKs, enabling smooth data exchange. Data providers must follow UWI’s data standardization guidelines to ensure consistency and interoperability. Additionally, they are responsible for implementing strong security protocols and adhering to all relevant data privacy regulations to protect user information.

Data Consumers (Businesses/Organizations)

Data consumers, much like data providers, integrate their systems with the UWI platform using provided APIs. However, their onboarding emphasizes access control and permissions. This ensures that data consumers can only access and utilize the specific data they are authorized to use, maintaining data integrity and user privacy. Clear guidelines and protocols are provided to facilitate this secure data access and usage.

Network Operators

Network operators play a crucial role in maintaining the UWI ecosystem. Their onboarding involves setting up and configuring the necessary UWI infrastructure components. They are also responsible for ongoing network monitoring and maintenance to ensure optimal performance and stability. Finally, network operators establish and enforce governance rules and compliance standards across all network participants, fostering a trustworthy and reliable UWI environment.

Currently, most trusted organizations with which users share their data operate on centralized models. Once users provide their information, they lose visibility and control over how it is stored, accessed, or shared. These centralized data systems are inherently vulnerable to cyberattacks, data breaches, and internal threats. Additionally, there is a risk that malicious actors within these organizations could exploit security gaps, putting user data at significant risk of compromise.

In contrast, UWI operates as a decentralized platform where data ownership remains firmly with the user. By adhering to the principle of data minimization, UWI ensures that only the minimal amount of data necessary for a given purpose is collected and shared. Leveraging cutting-edge privacy preserving techniques, UWI enhances both data security and user privacy, enabling users to retain granular control over their information.

UWI also introduces a powerful layer of data transparency where information cannot be shared without explicit user consent, and users are empowered to define the duration for which their data will be shared. This creates a fundamental shift in control, transferring data sovereignty from centralized entities like governments or financial institutions to the users themselves. Not only does this provide users with complete usage and sharingrights, but it also enables them to monetize their data, creating a value exchange for the data they choose to share.

Users are more likely to consent to share their data when they feel confident in the security measures protecting it. Technological advancements in Digital Identity, along with regulatory signals and mandates from governments in both the US and the EU requiring the use of Digital Identity and Wallets, will further strengthen this confidence in data security.

With UWI, personal data remains with its rightful owner, using proven technology and hardware to maintain full control over its lifecycle. In contrast, many users today share personal information in exchange for services without thoroughly validating the security measures in place, and much of this data is typically stored by the enterprise providing the service.

This often happens because users tend to trust well-established platforms or because the perceived benefits such as convenience or access to personalized services outweigh concerns about data security. That said, to foster greater trust and encourage informed consent, it will be crucial to clearly communicate the security protocols and privacy protections on the platform, ensuring users are fully aware of how their data is handled and protected.

In our experience many large companies struggle with internal data integration and this manifests in even greater challenges in external data collaboration. Enterprises often invest heavily yet still struggle to get value out of the troves of data to which they have access. And in the current external data collaboration model, enterprises struggle to collaborate on data due to privacy concerns, intra-enterprise data silos, and other challenges like walled gardens.

However, with UWI all these issues are eliminated by its very design. We envision UWI as the solution that breaks all data silos across enterprises, with the consumer permissioning what they share. Privacy and data security issues are automatically mitigated since data consents are directly issued by the end-user and businesses do not store the data locally in their systems – they only leverage it.

Data siloes are no longer a problem since all data related to a particular user comes integrated, shared from a consumer’s wallet. Hence, all the complexities and error margins of matching data from different sources using rigorous data science are no longer required.

UWI offers a comprehensive suite of services – including Wallet Solutions, Credential & Token Management, Data Verification & Exchange, and Network Orchestration and AI Agent Network Orchestration – designed to help businesses optimize operations, enhance customer engagement, and drive innovation in key areas such as KYC onboarding, personalized customer experiences, and tokenized asset transactions.

The platform provides the essential tools, frameworks, and services to enable users to securely store, manage, and selectively share their personal data with trusted entities, all while ensuring privacy and minimizing exposure. With UWI, users maintain full control over what data is shared, with whom, and for how long.

For enterprises, UWI integrates seamlessly with existing workflows, ensuring minimal disruption while offloading data management to its secure, scalable platform. This allows businesses to streamline processes without sacrificing operational continuity, enabling them to focus on their core functions while UWI handles the underlying data infrastructure.

Additionally, UWI’s open-source, composable architecture offers businesses the flexibility to extend or customize their implementation. This collaborative approach supports the creation of new services or modifications to existing ones, ensuring businesses can scale and adapt their solutions to meet unique needs within their digital ecosystems.

To drive large-scale adoption, UWI focuses on high-frequency, high-value use cases that touch everyday professional and personal activities. Beyond travel and onboarding, UWI addresses frequent needs across the end-to-end talent supply chain, credential verification, identity management, financial services, and loyalty programs. The combination of these interactions makes UWI a go-to tool for routine transactions, adding lasting value for users. Beyond the high-frequency, high-value focus we place on use cases, there are 3 other principles to drive end-user scale:

• Onboard Once, Use Broadly: With UWI’s unified onboarding, users can verify their identity once and seamlessly reuse it across a range of applications—spanning lifelong learning, workforce credentials, cross-platform financial transactions, and loyalty programs. This eliminates redundant sign-ups and accelerates user engagement.

• Ecosystem Partnerships for Scalable Impact: UWI fosters large-scale adoption by strategically engaging in partnerships across industries, addressing both broad, cross-industry opportunities and specific, process-driven needs. At the intersection of AI and identity standards, UWI is exploring collaborations to create an immutable identity and data control layer at the individual level, ensuring trust and transparency in digital interactions. In parallel, UWI is also targeting sector-specific partnerships, such as bridging interoperability gaps for financial services companies operating digital asset platforms. These partnerships will scale UWI’s infrastructure, delivering value across diverse ecosystems.

• User-Centric, Privacy-Preserving Design: UWI offers secure, hyper-personalized experiences that empower users to control and share their data across trusted touchpoints. Designed with privacy at its core, UWI ensures seamless, data-secure interactions that meet the rising expectations from consumers. This approach encourages ongoing engagement by delivering tailored experiences while maintaining trust and data protection.

The UWI platform is built on a foundation of trust, prioritizing data privacy and regulatory compliance through a holistic approach. Central to this approach is the principle of Universal Data Exchange, ensuring secure and transparent data handling. The platform places a strong emphasis on user control and transparency, requiring explicit consent before any data is shared or accessed.

Users are provided with clear, straightforward information about the data being requested, its purpose, and who will have access, all presented in an easily understandable format. This empowers users to make informed decisions. Consent is actively granted by the user through a clear action, and they retain the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

To enhance privacy, the UWI platform follows the principle of data minimization, sharing only the essential data required for each specific use case. This approach reduces the risk of unnecessary data exposure. Robust security measures, including encryption and strict access controls, are in place to protect user data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. The platform also supports a wide range of devices, platforms, and identity solutions, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility while upholding rigorous privacy standards. By adhering to these principles and complying with key data privacy regulations such as GDPR, the UWI platform creates a secure and trustworthy environment for all participants. This strong commitment to data privacy builds confidence in the platform, encouraging broader adoption and active participation within the UWI ecosystem.