1. What SSI (Self-Sovereign Identity) means
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Originally, SSI emerged as a philosophy + technical stack: individuals should fully control their digital identities without relying on central intermediaries.
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Technically, SSI often refers to decentralized identifiers (DIDs) + verifiable credentials (VCs), stored in a personal wallet, anchored to some decentralized trust registry (blockchain or otherwise).
2. What eIDAS2 / EUDI-wallet is doing
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The EUDI-wallet regulation (eIDAS2) does not use the word SSI, but it adopts core SSI principles and technologies in a standardized, government-backed way.
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Key SSI components inside EUDI2:
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User-controlled wallet → Citizens (and later enterprises, AI-agents, public sector bodies) hold credentials in a wallet under their control.
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Verifiable Credentials (VCs) → All credentials (ID, driving licence, diplomas, mandates, etc.) follow the W3C VC model, which is central to SSI.
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Selective disclosure → You can share only what’s needed (e.g., “over 18” instead of full date of birth).
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Trust registries → Instead of global blockchains, Member States operate official trusted lists/registries of issuers and wallets (eIDAS root of trust).
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Interoperability → EUDI2 wallets must interoperate across the EU, whereas SSI projects were often fragmented and voluntary.
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3. Differences from “classic SSI”
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No blockchain dependency: EUDI2 doesn’t require DIDs on blockchains. It allows different identifier formats (URNs, URLs, DIDs, etc.) as long as they are resolvable.
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Legal enforceability: Under eIDAS2, signatures and attestations from the wallet are legally binding across the EU. Most SSI pilots lacked that status.
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Public-private governance: Unlike “pure” SSI where anyone could be an issuer, EUDI2 ties issuers to official trust lists and supervisory frameworks.
4. In short
👉 EUDI2 uses SSI technologies (wallets, VCs, selective disclosure, user control) but under EU legal/governance frameworks instead of blockchain-first ideology.
