Austroads’ Digital Trust Service positioned for scalable nationwide expansion

The Austroads’ DTS provides relying parties with a list of issuing authority public keys that are used to authenticate mobile driver licences (mDLs) issued by the Australian states and territories. Austroads’ pre-production/beta version of the DTS has been tested and the results confirmed that it can be scaled up nationally.

The DTS was developed by Austroads in partnership with MATTR and compliant with the international standard ISO 18013. Based on the standard already adopted by much of Europe, and the United States, the DTS will support privacy-preserving interoperability between the mDLs.

Australian states and territories, along with the Commonwealth agreed to adopt this common standard on 21 June 2024, and all government agencies across Australia have been working together to support the development of the DTS. The mDLs are now in various stages of rollout in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

“The DTS gives relying parties the assurance that the mDL was issued by a true issuing authority and the trust that it complies with international mDL standards for privacy, security, and interoperability,” said Geoff Allan, Austroads Chief Executive.

“Our testing demonstrated that we can now scale the DTS across Australia. We hope that every state and territory will have mDLs or digital driver licences within the next 18 months and that their keys will be in the DTS,” he said.

To road-test its Digital Trust Service, Austroads hosted two international events in October 2024 – the Identity and Verifiable Credentials Summit 2024 and the 10th International Interoperability Test Event. More than 450 participants attended the events, bringing together key figures from the European Commission, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), senior executives from government services, Australia’s major banks, and leading identity and wallet providers.

“At these events, leading wallet providers and verifiers demonstrated that their technologies could seamlessly work together. All participants were able to host their cryptographic keys on the Austroads DTS, with 350 tests conducted by 21 providers. The results were a resounding success,” commented Geoff, highlighting the achievements of the collaboration.

The tests demonstrated how three continents can verify not only state-border but also international credentials. Participants successfully validated each other's digital wallets, walking through the U.S Department of Homeland Security’s airport biometric device that validates mDLs.

This historic moment included representatives from European countries such as France and the Netherlands, U.S. states like Arizona, Utah, and Maryland, and Australian states and territories, including Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Northern Territory, and Western Australia. The Australian wallets in use were based on their first-generation proof of concept ISO wallets.

Donnie Scott, CEO of Idemia, which provided the credential authentication technology (CAT) for the demonstration, said, “Our CAT technology helping travellers across the US get on board an airplane using their digital credentials. It is great to see organisations like Austroads and AAMVA stepping up to build the underlying infrastructure to allow this technology work wherever we are in the world.”

Ian Grossman, President and CEO of AAMVA said, “The DTS brings together the experience and learnings from North America and Europe. It brings global best practices that support safety, security, inclusion, reliability, and interoperability. It has shown the power of collaboration on a global scale to deliver better outcomes domestically and internationally.”

Florent Tournois, who leads both the ISO-developed French Wallet and the European Union’s program POTENTIAL, emphasised the importance of a standards-based approach in improving security. He noted, “It will bring security to online services, reduce fraud around identity, and eliminate paper-based fraud.” Florent also highlighted how the digital wallet system makes life simpler, saying, “It will be easier for people to do everything with just their phone.”

Don Young, Senior Director, Digital Strategy and Advisory from the Northern Territory Government that also validated their ISO compliant mDLs at the Austroads events, noted, “Digital licensing gives more power to the people who hold that digital licence to decide how they are going to use that for identity proofing in a way that is more safe and secure and privacy respecting.”

The demonstration also showcased how a wireless payment device could now verify proof of age without exchanging any personal data, using the MATTR proof of concept. This development adds another layer of privacy and convenience to digital credential verification. Businesses can also use existing infrastructure to participate, which means there is no significant cost barrier to verify these next generation credentials.

Claire Barber, CEO of MATTR, said, “With the integration of tap-to-verify technology, organisations can now utilise off the shelf point-of-scale hardware and benefit from seamless, secure, and efficient acceptance of digital credentials. This advancement means convenience, and the assurance that every verification respects user privacy. The Austroads events demonstrated how digital credential capabilities can be implemented across boundaries, at scale, and be an integral part of everyday interactions.”

Geoff Allan added, “We look forward to working with government stakeholders and with the industry in 2025 to co-develop the system that will work best for all Australians and for them.”

“We want to work with both industry and industry associations, like the pharmacy guild, accommodation Australia, hotels Australia, and others, because there is no use in having a great verifiable credential if industry can’t take it on board,” said Geoff.