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SoK: Anonymous Credentials for Digital Identity Wallets (Bormann, Lehmann 2026)

URL: https://eprint.iacr.org/2026/330.pdf

Summary

Systematization of knowledge on anonymous credentials for government digital identity wallets such as the EUDI Wallet, whose current proposals rely on classic ECDSA signatures. Organizes the landscape around two architectural approaches: dedicated multi-message signature schemes (e.g. BBS-style) that enable efficient zero-knowledge proofs, and general-purpose ZKPs layered on top of legacy ECDSA credentials (e.g. Longfellow, Crescent). Also catalogues the features anonymous credentials offer wallets and the open challenges, to inform ongoing standardization. Presented at SSR 2025.

Related resources

• Anonymous Credentials from ECDSA (Frigo & shelat 2024) (paper, 2024)
• Crescent: Stronger Privacy for Existing Credentials (Paquin, Policharla, Zaverucha 2024) (paper, 2024)
• Device Binding for Anonymous Credentials on Legacy Phones (Lehmann, Zacharakis 2026) (paper, 2026)
• Device-Bound Anonymous Credentials With(out) Trusted Hardware (Friedrichs, Harding, Lehmann, Lysyanskaya 2025) (paper, 2025)
• Short Group Signatures (Boneh, Boyen, Shacham 2004) (paper, 2004)