Berlin, Germany

Lissi GmbH is proud to announce it has successfully completed all three stages of FUNKE, Germany's landmark 15-month innovation competition to build the EUDI Wallet prototypes for the nation's European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet. Launched by SPRIND, the German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, the challenge brought together a highly competitive field of technology leaders to define the future of Germany's digital identity infrastructure.

‍

From an initial field that included global players like Samsung and Google, Lissi was selected and has now emerged as one of the final, proven providers. Our success in this demanding, multi-stage competition is a testament to our team's deep expertise and the maturity of our technology, solidifying our position at the forefront of the EUDI Wallet ecosystem not just in Germany, but across Europe.

‍

Why the German EUDI Wallet Challenge “FUNKE” matters for Europe

To understand the future of digital identity in Europe, one must look to initiatives like FUNKE. This was not a simple hackathon; it was a strategic, 15-month innovation competition launched by SPRIND, with a clear and ambitious mission. The goal was to create a trustworthy, user-friendly, and universally applicable EUDI Wallet prototype that could serve as the blueprint for Germany's implementation of the eIDAS 2.0 regulation.

‍

The competition was designed as an intense test to solve the hardest, most practical problems of creating a national digital identity wallet application. It tasked participants with addressing the critical challenges of security, data protection, user experience, and scalability head-on. By fostering a competitive environment, SPRIND ensured that only the most robust and innovative solutions would emerge. The insights and technologies developed throughout the challenge are therefore not just theoretical concepts; they are battle-tested solutions that provide a foundational blueprint for building a secure and interoperable digital Germany within a united digital Europe.

‍

The Proving Ground: A Journey of Technical Innovation

The FUNKE competition was structured in three distinct stages, each designed to test a critical aspect of the EUDI Wallet ecosystem. Our journey through these phases demonstrates a clear progression from building a secure foundation to mastering the most complex, high-value transactions.

‍

Stage 1: Building a Foundation of Trust

The first stage was dedicated to establishing the core of a trustworthy digital identity: the Person Identification Data (PID). Our primary achievement was enabling users to securely derive their official German PID directly from their physical German eID card onto their smartphone. To prove its real-world value, we immediately demonstrated this capability in a Know Your Customer (KYC) demo, showing how our wallet could drastically simplify and secure bank onboarding processes. As security is paramount, we integrated Google’s Play Integrity and Apple’s AppAttest to ensure the wallet's integrity on the user's device.

‍

Stage 2: Enabling Real-World Utility and Privacy

With a trusted identity foundation in place, the second stage focused on expanding the wallet's capabilities for everyday life by adding support for a wide range of Electronic Attestations of Attributes (EAAs), such as tax IDs or certificates of residence. Our key innovations here focused on user experience and privacy:

• Issuance during Presentation: We developed an innovative flow that allows a user to obtain missing credentials on the spot, directly within a verification process. If a bank account opening requires a certificate of residence the user doesn't have in their wallet yet, our credential discovery service helps find the official issuer (e.g., the municipality), and the user can request and receive the credential without having to restart the entire process.
• Privacy by Design: We implemented "batch issuance," a feature that allows a user to receive multiple single-use credential instances at once, making it impossible to link their activities across different services and significantly enhancing their privacy. We also integrated Status Lists to efficiently handle credential revocation scenarios.
• Effortless In-Person Sharing: We enabled seamless in-person credential presentation using MDoc standards, perfect for situations where an internet connection is not ensured.

‍

Stage 3: Mastering High-Trust Transactions

The final and most demanding stage required the implementation of advanced features for high-trust and legally-binding scenarios. Building on our expertise, we successfully delivered:

• Strong Customer Authentication (SCA): We implemented a seamless payment authorization capability, built upon the specifications that our team co-authored in the European Wallet Consortium's (EWC) payment taskforce.
• Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES): We enabled users to sign documents with the same legal weight as a handwritten signature by implementing a QTSP-centric model that aligns with both the POTENTIAL Large-Scale Pilot approach and the German Blueprint.
• Flexibility and Convenience: We developed support for "Claim-based Binding." This approach allows credentials to be linked via shared information rather than being rigidly tied to your device. This makes transferring your credentials to a new phone via backup simple and secure.
• Enhanced Security: We integrated Relying Party Authentication, a critical feature that verifies the identity of the service requesting your data, so you always know who you're interacting with.
• Advanced Cross-Device Security: By implementing the W3C Credential API on Android, we added a crucial layer of security that prevents session hijacking, ensuring that when you use your phone to interact with a service on another device (like a laptop), your connection remains secure from start to finish.
• Simplified Credential Requests: We implemented the new Digital Credential Query Language (DCQL), making it easier for services to request specific information and making more complex use cases easier to implement, all of which results in faster, smoother user interactions.

‍

Throughout this journey, we ensured our wallet prototype remained aligned with the latest global standards, culminating in our successful implementation of the first stable drafts of OpenID4VCI 1.0 and OpenID4VP 1.0. This rigorous, multi-stage development process has equipped us with unparalleled expertise in every layer of the EUDI Wallet technology stack. We integrated all these features in both our wallet as well as our EUDI Wallet Connector API solution. 

We’re proud to be among the winners of the contest, together with the other three finalists Animo, Ubique and wwWallet. 

Beyond Germany: Proving Interoperability on a European Scale

While the FUNKE challenge demonstrates our deep expertise in one of Europe’s most critical markets, true leadership in the EUDI Wallet ecosystem requires proven interoperability on a pan-European scale. We understood from the beginning that a solution for Germany must seamlessly connect with the entire continent. That is why, in parallel with our work in FUNKE, we have been actively contributing to and testing within all major EU Large-Scale Pilots (LSPs).

This deep immersion in the European ecosystem is not theoretical; it is a core part of our strategy. Our key contributions include:

• POTENTIAL: We played an active role in the high-stakes use cases for cross-border bank account opening and Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES). This involved close collaboration and interoperability testing with major financial institutions like Commerzbank, ING Bank and Post Luxembourg which participated in LSP and used our software for use case piloting. 
• European Wallet Consortium (EWC): Our team served as co-authors and implementers of the technical standards within the crucial payment taskforce. This places us at the center of defining how secure payments will function within the EUDI Wallet ecosystem across Europe.
• Broad Ecosystem Engagement: We are also active participants in the WE BUILD consortium, ensuring our technology remains aligned with the latest developments in the financial industry. 

‍

The most tangible outcome of this work is the real-world testing of our Lissi EUDI Wallet Connector, which has been successfully tested against a growing list of official government and LSP wallet prototypes from across the continent, including those from Italy (IT Wallet by pagopa), Austria (Valera Wallet by A-SIT), Poland (Mobywatel 3.0), Greece (Grnet), and Luxembourg (Luxembourg Wallet) among others. This combination of deep national innovation and broad, proven European interoperability is what sets Lissi apart as a uniquely reliable partner.

‍

The Result: An Enterprise-Grade Connector to the EUDI Ecosystem

All this extensive, hands-on experience - from winning a national innovation challenge to co-authoring European standards - serves one primary goal: to build the most robust and reliable EUDI Wallet Connector on the market. While our work in the FUNKE competition proves we can build an award-winning wallet, our strategic focus as a company is on providing the enterprise-grade infrastructure that organizations need to connect to this new ecosystem. The Lissi EUDI-Wallet Connector is that infrastructure - a secure and reliable gateway to the entire EUDI Wallet ecosystem.

The insights gained from building a wallet from the ground up are invaluable. They provide a unique, end-to-end understanding of how both sides of an interaction - the user's wallet and the organization's system - must function to create a seamless and secure experience. This allows us to anticipate interoperability challenges, optimize for complex user flows, and build a Connector that is simply more resilient and feature-complete than any solution developed in isolation.

For any organization facing the mandatory eIDAS 2.0 implementation, this makes choosing Lissi a safe bet. Our combination of deep technical expertise and proven pan-European experience de-risks the entire project. It ensures that our Connector is not just a piece of software, but a safer, more advanced, and future-proof long-term investment in your digital identity strategy.

‍

Conclusion: A Commitment to a United Digital Europe

Our successful journey through the FUNKE competition was more than just a project; it was a deep investment in the future of Europe's digital infrastructure. We are proud to have contributed to this national blueprint, which serves as a reference project for all other European countries. 

‍

As we move forward, our focus is clear. The Lissi team is ready and eager to support the official German government wallet and all other certified EUDI Wallets across Europe with our enterprise-grade API Connector. Our goal is to ensure that every organization has a reliable, secure, and proven partner to help them navigate the transition to the eIDAS 2.0 ecosystem. The future of digital identity is collaborative and pan-European, and we are here to help you build it. 

‍

Interested in learning how your organization can integrate with the upcoming EUDI Wallets? Contact our team today.

‍