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Identity fraud is a booming business. In the first half of 2025 alone, the Federal Trade Commission received 748,555 reports of identity theft already exceeding the first half of 2024 by 196,357 cases and putting 2025 on pace to be a record-breaking year. For businesses operating online, especially in finance, gaming, and e-commerce, verifying that a user is truly who they say they are isn't just a security measure; it's a legal necessity.
This is where PID (Person Identification Data) verification comes into play. It acts as the digital handshake that confirms trust between a user and a platform. But what exactly is PID, and how does it fit into the broader landscape of Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations?
This guide breaks down the concept of PID verification, explaining how it works, why it is critical for modern identity platforms, and the challenges businesses face in implementing it.
Person Identification Data (PID) is the core digital identity credential within the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet framework. Unlike generic personal data, PID is the foundational, government-issued credential that proves a person's legal identity essentially serving as the digital equivalent of a national ID card or passport's bio-data page.
According to the EU's official PID Identification Manual, a PID is issued and cryptographically signed by Member States or state-authorized PID Providers and reaches the highest Level of Assurance (LoA High) under eIDAS 2.0. This makes it the most trusted form of digital identity credential available.
To ensure cross-border interoperability and support both online and offline verification scenarios, PID credentials are issued in two technical formats:
1. mDoc (Mobile Document)
2. SD-JWT (Selective Disclosure - JSON Web Token)
According to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2977, every PID across the EU must contain mandatory attributes to ensure interoperability:
Mandatory Attributes:
Optional Attributes:
The beauty of PID lies in selective disclosure users can prove specific attributes (like being over 18) without revealing their full name, address, or other unnecessary personal details, supporting data minimization principles under GDPR.
In the context of digital identity platforms particularly within the EU PID verification represents the evolution of traditional Know Your Customer (KYC) processes. Here's how modern PID-based verification works:
The user downloads an EUDI Wallet from their Member State (or a certified private provider). They authenticate their identity with a government-authorized PID Provider, which verifies their identity against authentic sources and issues the cryptographically signed PID credential to their wallet.
When accessing an online service (e.g., opening a bank account, renting a car, accessing government services), the Relying Party (the service provider) requests specific PID attributes through a standardized protocol like OpenID4VP (OpenID for Verifiable Presentations).
The wallet displays exactly which attributes the service is requesting. The user reviews and consents to share only the necessary information. For example, an online liquor store might only request proof of "age_over_18" without needing the user's name, address, or exact birthdate.
The service provider cryptographically verifies:
If verification succeeds, the user gains access to the service. The entire process happens in seconds, with full user control and privacy protection.
PID credentials are cryptographically signed by government authorities, making them exponentially harder to forge than traditional document scans. With synthetic identity fraud reaching $3.3 billion in U.S. lender exposure by the end of 2024, and 20% of global business leaders identifying it as their predominant source of loss, government-backed PID credentials offer a significantly more secure foundation for identity verification.
Under eIDAS 2.0, EU Member States must provide at least one EUDI Wallet by September 2026. From November 2027, Very Large Online Platforms (≥45 million EU users) and regulated entities in financial services and telecommunications must accept EUDI Wallets for user authentication. PID-based verification ensures compliance with these upcoming mandates.
Traditional identity verification requires users to upload ID documents, take selfies, wait for manual review, and often repeat the process for each new service. With PID, verification happens in seconds with a simple tap one verified government-issued credential works across all participating services throughout the EU.
Unlike traditional KYC where businesses collect and store extensive personal data, PID enables selective disclosure. Users share only what's necessary, businesses store less sensitive data, and privacy risks decrease dramatically for both parties.
There's always a trade-off between security and convenience. Platforms must find the sweet spot—secure enough to stop fraud, smooth enough to keep legitimate users from abandoning the sign-up process. The promise of PID is that government-backed credentials can provide high security with minimal friction.
Even with PID's selective disclosure capabilities, platforms handling identity data remain attractive targets. In 2024, there were more than 3,000 data breaches documented in the United States, with breach risk severity increasing 34% according to TransUnion. Businesses must implement robust security measures to protect PID-related transactions and comply with GDPR requirements.
While PID provides strong cryptographic guarantees about credential authenticity, fraudsters are evolving their attack vectors. According to Entrust's 2025 Identity Fraud Report, deepfake attempts occurred at a rate of one every five minutes in 2024, with digital document forgeries increasing 244% year-over-year.
Veriff's 2025 Fraud Report reveals global fraud attempts grew 21% between 2024 and 2025, with 1 in every 20 identity verification failures now linked to deepfake attacks. The latest Entrust 2026 report shows deepfakes account for one in five biometric fraud attempts, with deepfake selfies increasing 58% in 2025.
Even with government-backed PID credentials, identity platforms must implement sophisticated liveness detection and anti-spoofing measures to prevent fraudsters from using deepfakes during the initial wallet setup or credential presentation processes.
While eIDAS 2.0 ensures PID interoperability across the 27 EU Member States, global businesses face challenges when serving customers outside Europe. Verifying identity documents from regions with less standardized systems or limited government digital infrastructure remains complex. Global platforms need solutions that can bridge PID-based verification with traditional document verification for non-EU users.
The European Commission has set an ambitious target: 80% of EU citizens actively using EUDI Wallets by 2030. With all Member States required to offer certified wallets by September 2026, and mandatory acceptance by large platforms from November 2027, the PID-based identity ecosystem is rapidly becoming reality.
Countries like Austria have already deployed their EUDI Wallet (Valera) ahead of schedule, while others are in active pilot phases. Ireland recently completed a successful pilot with over 500 civil servants and is drafting legislation to give digital credentials full legal status.
While PID is specific to the EU's eIDAS 2.0 framework, similar initiatives are emerging globally. The ISO/IEC 18013-5 mobile driver's license (mDL) standard one of the technical formats supporting PID is being adopted in various countries. International standards alignment will be crucial for global digital identity interoperability.
Beyond basic PID, the EUDI Wallet supports additional credentials called Electronic Attestations of Attributes (EAA) and Qualified Electronic Attestations of Attributes (QEAA). These can include:
PID serves as the foundational "root of trust" upon which these additional credentials can be built, creating a comprehensive digital identity ecosystem.
Future systems may combine PID-based verification with behavioral biometrics analyzing typing patterns, device interaction, and usage patterns to enable continuous, low-friction authentication throughout a user session rather than one-time verification at login.
PID verification represents the future of digital identity moving from fragmented, document-based processes to unified, government-backed, cryptographically verifiable credentials that respect user privacy while ensuring security.
For identity platforms operating in or serving European markets, understanding and preparing for PID-based verification isn't optional. With identity theft on track to reach record highs in 2025, synthetic identity fraud costing billions, deepfake attempts occurring every five minutes, and mandatory EUDI Wallet acceptance requirements taking effect in 2027, businesses must act now.
The transformation from traditional KYC to PID-based verification offers an unprecedented opportunity to reduce fraud, enhance security, improve user experience, and ensure regulatory compliance all while respecting user privacy through selective disclosure.
For identity platforms, the message is clear: embrace PID verification, prepare for eIDAS 2.0 compliance, and build the infrastructure necessary to participate in Europe's unified digital identity ecosystem. Those who move quickly will gain competitive advantage; those who wait risk being left behind.
As identity verification shifts toward PID-based and reusable credential models, platforms don’t need to rebuild their entire stack but they do need the right infrastructure to adapt.
Hovi is built to support this transition. From verifying EU-issued PID credentials to enabling reusable identity flows and wallet-based architectures, Hovi helps identity, KYC, and IAM platforms participate in the emerging European digital identity ecosystem without compromising on privacy, assurance, or interoperability.
Rather than replacing existing systems, Hovi is designed to integrate with them supporting open standards, multiple ecosystems, and future-ready identity models, including verifiable AI. As regulatory requirements evolve and wallet adoption accelerates, having flexible, standards-aligned infrastructure becomes a strategic necessity, not a nice-to-have.
The shift to PID verification is already underway. The question for platforms is no longer if this model will become mainstream but how prepared they are to support it.
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