On 7 April 2026 the European Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/798, and with it something the identity industry has requested for a decade: a single, legally mandated standard for remote identity proofing. Wallet providers onboarding EUDI Wallet users across the EU and EEA must now verify identities to ETSI TS 119 461, the European standard defining policy and security requirements for identity-proofing services.
Why one standard changes the market
Until now, "verified identity" meant twenty-seven interpretations: video-call agents in one state, photo uploads in another, chip reading in a third. CIR 2026/798 collapses that spread. The ETSI baseline treats chip-based verification with certified liveness as the reference-grade path for unattended remote proofing, exactly the architecture attackers have failed to beat with generative tools.
The bar becomes the default
Standards written for wallets rarely stay in wallets. Banks, telcos and platforms now have a Commission-endorsed definition of "good enough" to point procurement at, and vendors below the bar will feel it. WeVerify's verification has operated at this grade in production for years: ICAO 9303 chip reading with passive and chip authentication, ISO 30107-3 certified liveness, sealed evidence per event. For once, regulation is catching up to architecture rather than the reverse.