INCM Implements Verifiable Credentials in Pilot with Universidade Lusófona Using Gataca Technology

INCM (Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda), the Portuguese Mint and Official Printing Office, and Universidade Lusófona announced today the start of a pilot project to deploy a digital identity solution using verifiable credentials for simple and secure authentication across various student services.

Gataca, as an industry leader in decentralized identity management technology, has been selected by INCM as its technology partner for this pilot.

By leading this pilot, INCM aims to promote the use of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) as a digital trust framework, demonstrating its commitment to adopting innovative solutions that prioritize security and user-centricity.

The INCM plays an important role in the EBSI ecosystem, hosting the sole validator EBSI node in Portugal and soon representing the country in the Assembly of the future governance structure that will coordinate the efforts of the EBSI ecosystem.

"Security, quality, and trust in societal life represent the contribution of INCM throughout the centuries. And this mission, which we have always embraced in the physical world, remains valid, perhaps even more so, in the digital world. We are very grateful to our partners, Universidade Lusófona and Gataca, who have accepted this pioneering challenge with the conviction that it is just the beginning within a vast universe of use cases where the solution can be applied." – Dora Moita, PCA, INCM

Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), or decentralized identity technology, represents a transformative approach to digital authentication. In this model, individuals keep their digital documents, known as “verifiable credentials”, directly on their mobile devices and decide who can access their data and how it is used.

As part of this initiative, Universidade Lusófona will provide students with digital student cards, issued as verifiable credentials in the INCM Wallet, with the aim of testing different use cases:

• Verification of a student or lecturer at Universidade Lusófona for the application of a discount on Cinema Fernando Lopes ticket prices.
• Verification of a student or lecturer at Universidade Lusófona for a discount at the Veterinary Hospital.
• Verification of a student or lecturer at Universidade Lusófona to apply for a discount at the University Canteen.
• Verification of a student or lecturer at Universidade Lusófona to obtain a password to access digital services.

Hosting the solution on EBSI will ensure a secure, transparent, and decentralized system that improves reliability and simplifies the process of verifying credentials online.

"The pilot project with INCM will allow us to test the implementation of verifiable credentials following a self-sovereign identity logic at the Higher Education level. It will be a big challenge, which joins two others where Lusófona University is already a partner, namely the 3rd generation pilot of EBSI and the large-scale DC4EU pilot." - Paulo Ferreira, Innovation Support Office, Lusófona University.

Gataca provides the technology required for issuing, managing, and verifying these verifiable credentials. Their solutions are based on interoperable standards that ensure seamless data exchange between different use cases and geographies.

“We are excited to support INCM with our solutions as they implement verifiable credentials in Portugal to create a more secure and trusted digital identity ecosystem.” - Irene Hernández, CEO at Gataca.

The pilot will first focus on the higher education domain to gain first-hand knowledge of how the technology works, where it can best be applied, and its potential and challenges for the broad deployment of blockchain-based services.