The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Linux Foundation have expressed willingness to launch an OpenWallet Forum to stimulate global access to digital wallets.
This was announced at the just concluded World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 Forum High-Level Event at Geneva, Switzerland.
The partnership forms key technology building blocks for digital public infrastructure.
According to the UN Specialized Agency for Information and Communication Technologies, Digital wallets are providing millions of people with their first opportunity to save, make digital payments, and develop a transaction history attesting to their creditworthiness.
The ITU explained that “The OpenWallet Forum will offer a platform for multi-stakeholder cooperation to integrate wide-ranging requirements from governments and companies into coordinated policies and technical standards for digital wallets.
“The forum will also be supported by the UN International Computing Centre (UNICC) and the Government of Switzerland.”
Also Read: ITU Announces $4.8 Billion Investment in Global Connectivity
Focus on security and global interoperability
“The OpenWallet Forum will emphasize the security and interoperability of digital wallets, recognizing the importance of trust in digital wallet services and the greater scope of opportunity to take advantage of them when services from multiple providers work together successfully.”
Hosted by ITU and the Linux Foundation, the OpenWallet Forum will build on the success of the OpenWallet Foundation, which will continue bringing developers together to work on open-source software for secure, interoperable digital wallets.
The OpenWallet Foundation will also host core open-source components for digital wallets.
The Agency noted that the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC) will work with the Linux Foundation to provide a mirror of all Git-based source code repositories hosted by the OpenWallet Foundation as well as channel software contributions from UNICC partners and affiliates to the OpenWallet Foundation’s repositories.
ITU will leverage its diverse global membership and extensive network of partners to drive supporting multistakeholder collaboration aimed at ensuring that the software is available globally.
It added that detailed information on opportunities to participate will be shared by ITU and the OpenWallet Foundation closer to the launch of the OpenWallet Forum.
