Prof. Dr. Georgi Dimitrov: By December 2023, the EC will introduce a European digital wallet

Digitalization means a complete reform in thinking, a change in people's consciousness. Then come the technologies and in third place – the law that should validate them. Prof. Dr. Georgi Dimitrov - member of the Board of Directors of "Eurotrust Technologies" JSC and chairman of the "Law and Internet" Foundation said this in the program "Focus Man" on Radio "Focus".

According to him, one of the big problems for rapid digitization, including the development of e-government in our country, was the lack of recognized national schemes for electronic identification. "An identification scheme means the substitute for the identity card in an electronic environment - to be able to electronically certify your identity and identity. The second problem is what will replace the paper and how will the documents be signed, what will be the analogue of the handwritten signature, how will the time be established on the documents, how the documents will be served, what will be the analogue of the so-called secure service, how will the documents be stored so that regardless of how far the technologies have reached in 30, 40, 50 years, the authenticity of the document can be verified ", Prof. Dimitrov explained.

The electronic services provided by the state are 2,500, he pointed out. "Imagine them being accessible with one click from the phone, through the e-governance portal of the state," he added.

EU Regulation 910 regulates the provision of these services and electronic identification to be carried out precisely through technologies. This is how the idea of creating "Eurotrust Technologies" was born. "The concept of "Eurotrust" is to develop such technology, which is a huge technological step forward and allows everything to be done from the device that everyone keeps in their pocket - the mobile phone, without having any specific knowledge, to be able to identify himself, and sign, and deliver the document, and establish the time with one click," explained Prof. Dimitrov.

In order to ensure trust in the provision of electronic services, they must be checked by independent verifiers, special auditors, to determine whether they meet certain technological standards operating in Europe, the expert explained. "When it is found that the services meet these requirements and the entire activity of the provider meets these services, then the Communications Regulatory Commission checks whether the audit reports are complete, comprehensive, whether they have analyzed all aspects of the provider's security and activity, and only then the provider gets the status of a trusted, qualified provider of authentication services. Only then does he have the right to provide these services on the market. Every two years a new audit, new registration, new authentication is passed," explained Prof. Dimitrov.

According to him, this trust is very difficult to build and is the result of the constant development of technologies and meeting certain standards. "Behind it is the control of the state, special insurances that practically protect end users and trusting parties. If there is any problem in the activities of the supplier and as a result of some negligence on his part, these damages and losses can be compensated. This is also visible to the entire EU, so that these services can be accessed by every member country," Prof. Dimitrov explained.

By December this year, the EC is introducing a European digital wallet that will contain all the facts and attributes of every single person. It is predicted that by 2030, 82% of the EU population will have such a wallet, the expert explained. "This is an exceptional step in the digitization of society. There will no longer be a need for a person to carry his ID card or driver's license. This is a legally recognized tool, something like an electronic passport," Prof. Dimitrov added.

Each country can develop its own wallet or rely on private wallets. "Eurotrust" is one of the companies that has set itself the goal of developing a digital wallet, said one of the founders of the company.

Prof. Dimitrov explained that access to the data from the digital wallet will be carried out by special methods, they will be protected and strongly encrypted using blockchain technologies. "All modern advances in security and technology will be implemented. There will be special technological standards against which a wallet must be certified. If it does not meet these security and data protection standards, it can never become in a wallet," he added.