E-ID IN SWITZERLAND: WHAT CHANGES NOW

Summary

On 28 September 2025, Swiss voters approved the federal e-ID (through swiyu Wallet app) law by a razor-thin margin (about 50.4% in favour).That result reverses the 2021 rejection and gives the Confederation the green light to offer a state-run, optional and free digital identity.

Why E-ID?

The new framework lets people prove who they are online as easily as they do at a counter, opening a bank account, requesting official extracts, or proving they’re over 18, while keeping physical ID options in place. Crucially, the state, not private companies, runs the core trust infrastructure, and using the e-ID remains voluntary and free.

What’s different from 2021

The earlier proposal failed because of concerns over private-sector control and privacy. The updated model shifts issuance and operation to the Confederation and deliberately decentralises data, giving users maximum control over what they share. There’s no central authority hoarding everyone’s credentials.

How data protection works under the hood (SD-JWT)

Switzerland’s architecture adopts “selective disclosure” with SD-JWTs: attributes are cryptographically committed (think salted hashes) and you release only the pieces a checker needs. Want to buy alcohol? You disclose “over 18”, not your full birthdate, name or address. The verifier cannot reconstruct hidden data from what you share. The e-ID and its trust infrastructure are developed openly. During Public Beta and beyond, the Swiss government publishes the source code under the MIT licence and maintains an organisation on GitHub with the wallet apps, registries and reference components (open source).

Public Beta is a safe, real-world testing space for the Swiss technology stack. It includes:

Base Registry: lets ecosystem participants onboard as issuers/verifiers and manages public keys and status lists;
Trust Registry: records which entities are verified issuers or verifiers so wallets and services can check trust status;
Generic Issuer / Generic Verifier: open-source reference services to issue and verify Verifiable Credentials (“VCs”) without re-implementing the standards; and
Swiyu Wallet app: a mobile wallet to request a Beta-ID, store credentials and present them via QR when asked.

Technical docs (so-called “cookbooks”) explain onboarding and common use cases; today, the wallet accepts credentials from issuers listed in the Base Registry.

Data Protection: where your data lives

Your credentials and the e-ID live in your wallet on your phone. The system is built so that storage is decentralised and transactions aren’t visible to third parties, public or private, unless you explicitly disclose data. There’s no central database that aggregates your interactions.

Conclusion

The administration indicates the earliest general availability to order a state e-ID via the swiyu app is from summer 2026. Until then, Public Beta continues to harden the components and invite contributions.

Lexify as Your Consultant

Lexify continuously monitors regulatory developments and assists Swiss and European companies within this sector. For further information or support, our legal team is at your disposal.

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