What Happens When an EUDI Wallet Is Lost, Suspended, or Revoked?

Having your wallet misplaced means having to get new cards issued, cancel bank accounts, and deal with potential identity theft. Having an EUDI Wallet misplaced is a completely different story.

Instead of having to worry about physical documents getting lost, the EUDI Wallet system revolves around secure cryptographic credentials that can be protected, suspended, recovered, or issued anew.

From the user perspective, the question becomes the following:

Can a person who finds my phone use my digital identity?

From the business perspective, the question is different:

Is this credential still trustworthy at the moment it is being presented?

It all depends on the status of the wallet, the credential lifecycle, and whether the relying party performs the necessary checks.

What happens if you lose your EUDI Wallet

If a device holding the EUDI Wallet is lost or stolen, the next action to take is reporting the incident to the wallet provider or the national service, depending on the Member State’s implementation.

Depending on how the Member State is implementing the service, the wallet will be put on hold, disabled, or revoked.

This is different from a photo or PDF stored on a mobile phone since EUDI Wallet credentials are secured through a cryptographic method, which in most cases are backed by secure hardware, if supported by the device.

For instance, according to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV) of Finland, wallet users will be allowed to disable their wallets in case of device loss and restore under a specific recovery process, with further information expected as the national wallet service advances.

Suspension: A Temporary Safety Precaution

Suspension helps to deliver a quick fix to situations involving loss, theft, or possible compromise of a wallet.

Suspension does not lead to invalidation of the wallet; instead, it suspends usage of the specific wallet instance until the issue has been solved.

This builds a crucial containment system.

Even if a perpetrator obtains physical access to the device, no wallet presentations would be accepted when the wallet is suspended as long as the relying party validates the status of the wallet during verification.

If all is well, wallet providers/issuers can reinstate or replace the wallet instance.

Revocation: Terminating the Life Cycle of a Credential

Revocation goes a step further than suspension.

While suspension is aimed at being only a temporary solution, revocation makes a credential or wallet permanently invalid. As a result, the revoked credential would no longer be considered reliable when presented and would need to be re-issued.

It can be said that revocation is the end of the credential’s life cycle.

For the relying party, this means that the credential which was considered valid yesterday cannot automatically be trusted today without its status being verified.

Why Continuous Verification Matters

One of the core principles of the EUDI Wallet ecosystem is that trust is created during each individual verification, not simply upon the issuance of the credential.

When you receive a wallet presentation in your app, the verification flow should resolve some key questions:

• Is the wallet legitimate?

• Is the credential still valid?

• Has the credential been revoked?

• Is the issuing organization trusted?

• Are the cryptographic proofs valid?

These checks ensure that only valid credentials are accepted.

If any of these checks are omitted, there is a risk that the credential could be invalid or compromised.

Unlike conventional identity verification, the EUDI Wallet ecosystem relies on cryptographic proofs, trusted issuers, and trust infrastructure instead of document uploads or manual review.

What Users Experience

From the point of view of a user, losing an EUDI Wallet is similar to reporting a lost or stolen bank card but with enhanced identity protections built into the recovery procedure.

The normal course of events includes the following:

• The user reports the lost/stolen device.

• The wallet is suspended or disabled.

• The user completes identity verification is necessary.

• Access is restored via the wallet service provider or new credentials are issued.

The procedure for recovery will vary according to the Member State and the service provider, and not all credentials will be automatically restored. Certain credentials will have to be re-issued by the original issuing entity.

That is why the users should always follow the guidelines for recovery offered by their wallet providers.

What Businesses Need to Prepare For

Companies expecting to integrate EUDI Wallets need to design their systems in a way that will take into account a number of events in a credential's life cycle, such as:

• Lost devices

• Temporary wallet suspensions

• Permanent revocation of credentials

This means that the verification systems have to be capable of:

• Identifying revoked or invalid credentials.

• Conducting trust validation and status checks whenever verification is required.

• Making users go through a re-verification process when necessary.

• Minimizing stored personal information in order to mitigate security issues during recovery events.

This is especially important in heavily regulated industries like fintech, healthcare, gambling, markets, education and public sector services, among others.

How Authbound Simplifies EUDI Wallet Credential Lifecycle Management

Providing full support for the entire lifecycle of the EUDI Wallet credential goes far beyond simply accepting a credential presentation.

Companies have to build verification workflows that are capable of validating wallet authenticity, verifying the status of the credential, verifying trusted issuers, doing revocation checks and remaining compatible with constantly evolving EUDI Wallet standards.

Authbound offers a B2B SaaS integration layer that will allow companies to handle much of the complexities. Besides the integration platform, Authbound Wallet showcases how credentials can be handled by users in a secure and user-friendly mobile application. Together, the integration platform and the wallet embody the values of the European Digital Identity ecosystem with secure credential handling paired with standards-based interoperability.

Depending on your implementation, Authbound can support capabilities such as:

• Wallet attestation validation

• Credential verification

• Revocation and credential status validation

• Validation of trusted issuers

• Verification workflows based on standards

• Multi-wallet support

Rather than handling all the above complexities of verification infrastructure internally, engineering teams can concentrate on delivering secure user experiences while Authbound enables simpler integration with the ever-changing EUDI Wallet ecosystem.

In the context of digital identity becoming increasingly popular in Europe, companies that prepare for handling the whole credential lifecycle rather than only for onboarding will be able to provide their customers with secure and trustworthy digital identity services.

If your company is planning to integrate the EUDI Wallet, Authbound can help you with building verification workflows compatible with the evolving EUDI Wallet ecosystem.

Schedule a call with our team.