State of Play 2025

While digital wallets are critical tools, growing their utility requires addressing interoperability, regulatory inconsistency – particularly in cross-border payment scenarios – user trust, and consistent and reliable network accessibility. Forecast The traction of multistakeholder programmes like the OpenWallet Foundation, a cooperation between the United Nations International Telecommunications Union and the Linux Foundation,14 highlights digital wallets as a major driver of the internet’s potential for even greater economic impact. As digital wallets evolve to store not only currency but also verifiable credentials and digital proofs, there is a growing need to ensure they are designed with interoperability and accessibility in mind. Ensuring broad access and seamless functionality across systems and borders is essential to unlocking their full societal Digital wallets and ownership Digital wallets and payment systems have been massively impactful as engines of economic growth and participation. Examples like Kenya’s M-PESA, which launched in 2007 as a microfinance repayment platform and quickly grew to a full- service mobile payment system processing 56% of Kenya’s GDP in 2023,9 or India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), an open-source digital wallet tool and protocol that has spread to hundreds of millions of users across at least seven countries,10 showcase digital wallets’ potential for impact in digital and financial inclusion. But their utility is not limited to developing markets. As of 2025, nearly half of global consumers use digital wallets for bill payments, with significant usage in both online and in-store transactions.11 In the US, 65% of adults reported using a digital wallet at least once in the past month,12 and projections indicate global transaction value in excess of $17 trillion by 2029.13 Metaverse identity extends beyond possessing an avatar and encompasses an individual’s behaviours, preferences, movements, actions and decisions made in digital realms – whether they be AR, VR, MR, 2D webpages or something else. Given this potential traceability between an individual’s identity in the digital world and their “real-life” identity in the physical world, stakeholders should consider the tension between privacy, safety, regulation32 and individual identity choices.Child insight Metaverse identities may be linked back to a real-world self; as such, additional considerations around privacy, safety and compliance is needed for the well-being of children and other vulnerable populations.31 1.3.2 Speaking a common identity language Metaverse identity is composed of how one presents themselves, the personas they assume and the credentials they possess. Behind all these layers are the supporting data points that capture the essence of those expressions. Metaverse identity layers FIGURE 2 Expression Public spaces (environmental spaces)Representation cultural, social, legal, geographicIdentity constructsPrivate spaces (personal, industrial, enterprise spaces) Presentation physical attributes, characteristics Personas behaviours and roles Credentials (functional and foundational) authorizations, identifications, attestations, tokens and certifications“Real world identity” Physical spaces“Digital identity” Digital spaces Web 2.0, metaverse (AR, MR and VR), IAM*, and DiD Ability to have… portability and interoperability of…Privacy and security choicesHow I look The behaviours and roles I assume The paper-based and digital credentials I carryHow my avatar, personas and digital profiles look The behaviours and roles my digital self assumes The digital credentials my avatar, personas, etc. carry Metaverse identity layers *Identity and access management **Decentralized identifiersGoverned by regulations, standards and jurisdictions My decisions in private spacesMy decisions in virtual private spacesMy decisions in public spacesMy decisions in virtual public spaces Tangible and intangible “data about me” Personal beliefs Digital assets I associate with myself (money and objects) Ability to disclose, shield, hide and/or assume anonymity/ pseudonymity Metaverse Identity: Redefining Identity for a Blended Reality 11