"Digital wallets, the core of future infrastructure"... Web 3.0 policy research proposes an integrated ecosystem roadmap

Recent reports on Web 3.0 industry activation policies provide an in-depth analysis of the standards and elements required to build a unified digital wallet and achieve interoperability. This wallet technology, which integrates management of digital identities and assets, is expected to become the core infrastructure of the next-generation network environment. The report specifically elaborates on the current service status domestically and internationally, technical considerations, directions for improving legal systems, and lifecycle management guidelines, emphasizing the necessity of policy support to promote the maturity of the digital wallet ecosystem.

A digital wallet is an application service that stores and manages various information such as financial assets and identification credentials in software form, gradually gaining popularity in the market under the term “unified digital wallet.” In South Korea, Samsung Wallet offers convenient payment, transportation cards, membership cards, and digital ID functions; Shinhan Bank’s Sol Wallet and Raon Secure’s OmniOne further expand functionalities to include NFTs, electronic certificates, and DID-based identity verification. Overseas, Apple and Google Wallet have taken the lead in commercialization, and EUDI Wallet is mentioned as a representative case of providing unified digital identity services to European citizens.

Technically, the report points out that biometric authentication, distributed identity verification, blockchain-based record storage, and standard API provision are essential elements. Among these, standardization of public interfaces is emphasized to facilitate smooth integration with other applications; user authentication, prevention of unauthorized access, secure data migration, and anti-counterfeiting technologies are also listed as important components. Professor Park Geon-deok, the author of the report, emphasizes that only by meeting these technical requirements can a unified digital wallet establish itself as an interoperable infrastructure.

At the same time, the legal foundation for digital wallets is also given attention. The report states that regulations need to be improved not only to facilitate linkage with public and private services for electronic certificates, payments, and qualification verification but also to parallelly enhance related laws from cybersecurity perspectives such as anti-money laundering. In fact, organizations like ITU-T, ISO/IEC, and domestic bodies like TTA are actively working on international standardization around “digital identity wallets,” and the Open Wallet Forum aims to promote technological integration through global cooperation.

The report analyzes that a digital wallet should not merely be a simple identity storage tool but must encompass a complete lifecycle management system covering creation, distribution, usage, transfer, deactivation, and deletion. Therefore, deployment methods that prevent counterfeiting and tampering, wallet copying and migration functions, ensuring the integrity of user authentication processes, and supporting interoperability between different wallet applications are necessary. Web 3.0 Industry Activation Policy Research explains that through these measures, a unified digital wallet can ensure citizens’ trust-based digital activities.

The unified digital wallet technology is expected to become an essential infrastructure in fields such as finance, public administration, and private certification. When ecosystems are formed, standards are established, technologies are internalized, and policy support is organically linked, digital wallets are poised to become key to realizing personal-centered secure data sovereignty.