Slovakia is building a digital identity ecosystem that connects mobile apps, the electronic ID card, and modern verification methods. After half a year of development, new usage scenarios have been added, the first nationwide adoptions have appeared, and clear steps have been taken to address weak spots. The goal is a wallet with IDs on your phone, a simpler signature, and verification available “around the corner”.
Three pillars and where we are today
The ecosystem stands on the e‑Doklady and Identita apps with mobile ID, and on a modernized EID client. In e‑Doklady, the ID card and driver’s license are in a pilot phase, as are document exchange between two individuals and age verification for the thresholds of 18 or 65 with a minimum of shared data. Today it is an online version, but an offline mode with data stored on the phone is in preparation.
The e‑Doklady app has approximately 210,000 downloads and around 175,000 active users; Identita is higher, at roughly 300,000 downloads. The priority is the use of mobile ID—the key to state services and authentication. The EID client has undergone modernization, been aligned with IDSK, and enables signing even without a reader, with broad support for signature tools.
Verification in practice: up close, remotely, and via the web
The “up close” scenario is used by police patrols and is broadly accepted by all branches of Slovenská pošta. Verification between two individuals also works in the app. Remotely, identity is confirmed in two ways: by invoking the e‑Doklady app from a third‑party app or by scanning a QR code on the web (cross‑device), with the citizen always seeing to whom and for what purpose the data is shared.
For organizations, a free web service is also available with allowlisted IP addresses and internal management of authorized persons. Third‑party interest is growing, but integrations are slowed by bureaucracy (contracts, data scopes). Therefore the state is preparing a new solution: identity and signature integrated directly into payment terminals at client centers and post offices. After summer deployment, approximately 400 to 450 devices are to be gradually added in the field; the solution is also offered to banks and operators.
What hinders adoption and where we’re headed
The biggest obstacle is initial activation for older eIDs, which requires a reader and knowledge of the personal security code (BOK). Although approximately 4.5 million eIDs are in circulation and the vast majority already have a modern dual interface, without the BOK (about 3.7 million are activated) a digital identity cannot be created. There are two solutions: PIN/BOK management at branches of Slovenská pošta (planned launch at the end of summer–beginning of autumn) and the option to set up a BOK from home, which will undergo thorough security testing before rollout.
Around the turn of the year, a new version of e‑Doklady is to arrive with data stored on the phone, in line with the European digital wallet and with verification prepared also for the police. A revamped design along IDSK lines is in the works and five sections: e‑documents, e‑services, documents (certificates and attestations from various ministries), e‑signature with convenient remote signing, and a chatbot for clear answers without searching through thousands of pages of manuals. An open ecosystem will allow ministries to plug in their own agendas with unified identity and signature. A horizontal law on digital documents planned for the first quarter of next year is to unify verification rules and facilitate the addition of approximately nine further documents.
