The EUDI Wallet answers “is this really this person?” – but only when they actively present it. What is missing is the other direction: looking up keys and reachability for a verified identity, without that person being online. ROND is a public-benefit oriented project building that directory as an open protocol – and it is looking for people to shape it.
By late 2026, every EU citizen will gain access to an EUDI Wallet — Germany plans to go live in early 2027. For the first time, this creates a pan-European identity layer for 450 million people.
What's missing is the open directory on top. Today, "Sign in with Google" and "Sign in with Apple" solve the password problem – but the price is handing your entire digital identity graph to a corporation.
ROND aims to build the open, federated, public-interest alternative — the earlier an open standard exists, the better its chance against proprietary solutions. The protocol should belong to people, not its inventors, not investors, not a corporation.
Your identity belongs to you – not a corporation, not a cloud, not an algorithm. At ROND, digital sovereignty should follow from the architecture, not from a promise.
What exists is a problem analysis, a conceptual architecture, and a favorable window of opportunity. The architecture is a draft — it needs to be validated and refined by domain experts. What's missing are the people with the expertise:
Want to understand which design questions are still open first? See the open design questions →
Formal protocol specification, zero-knowledge architecture, Shamir's Secret Sharing, cryptographic security proofs.
ZKP · SSS · Formal VerificationInheritance law, data protection (GDPR), eIDAS 2.0, digital sovereignty, foundation law. Legal opinions on protocol compliance.
GDPR · eIDAS · Inheritance LawAssessing the mechanisms that could serve as a tamper-evident integrity anchor for the Registry: security analysis, operating cost, formal verification. The decision is open.
Architecture decision openOperating Tier-1 nodes on owned hardware. Federated systems, network architecture, high availability.
Self-Hosted · FederatedInfrastructure accessible to everyone – not just the technically savvy. Hide complexity, build trust.
Accessibility · Trust UXOrganizations and foundations that fund and support critical digital infrastructure as a public good.
NGO · Public Interest TechDigital sovereignty is not a feature. It's a foundational architectural decision that permeates every aspect of the protocol.
All sensitive data is encrypted on your device before it leaves. Keys are to be fragmented via Shamir's Secret Sharing. At no point does a complete key exist on a foreign system.
This applies to the protocol and to the project's operating infrastructure — node software, Registry, hosting, CI, and forge. No single provider controls the infrastructure; encrypted shards sit with identifiable node operators in known jurisdictions. Individual nodes can use cloud hardware, since all data is encrypted client-side.
Wherever possible, ROND replaces trust with cryptography and central authorities with federated networks. You only need to trust mathematics – and it's publicly auditable.
The Registry needs an anchor that keeps it provable over decades that rules, public keys, and hashes have not been altered after the fact. Which technology provides that anchor is not decided – the architecture decision is in progress (ADR-003, status: Proposed). Independently of it: your content leaves your device encrypted and is stored as shards across federated nodes – never in plaintext, never complete in one place.
The EUDI Wallet answers “is this really this person?” – but only when that person actively presents it. What is missing is the other direction: looking up keys and reachability for a verified identity, without that person being online.
For decades, S/MIME and PGP have failed not because of the cryptography, but because there is no reliable directory in which the key of a verified person can be looked up. That directory is what is missing.
An EUDI-based, federated opt-in key directory. The EUDI Wallet is a wallet, not a phonebook – the Registry connects verified identity with cryptographic reachability. "Sign in with EUDI" follows from that: no password, no corporation, no tracking.
Who can contact me, under what conditions, verified by EUDI attestations. You set the rules. Spam isn't filtered – spam becomes structurally impossible. Existing messengers like Signal or Matrix can integrate the API.
Encrypted data released to verified recipients after death or incapacitation. Dead Man's Switch and Guardian verification – the trigger logic is deterministic, transparent, and cannot be manipulated by any single person.
These two prerequisites never existed at the same time. The window opens in late 2026 and will close once closed platforms occupy the space.
EU Regulation 2024/1183 mandates every member state to provide an EUDI Wallet. By late 2027, banks, telecoms, healthcare, and Very Large Online Platforms must accept it. 450 million verified digital identities – with qualified electronic signatures and selective disclosure.
Person Identification Data · QES · Selective DisclosureGerman Federal Court 2018: digital inheritance equals physical inheritance. § 4 TDDDG (2024): providers must cooperate with heirs. eIDAS 2.0: legal framework for EUDI Wallet and qualified attestations. The laws exist – what's missing is the technical infrastructure to implement them.
§ 1922 BGB · GDPR · eIDAS 2.0 · TDDDGROND doesn't build apps – ROND provides the open protocol layer on which businesses, governments, and civil society can build their own services.
"Sign in with EUDI" via the ROND Identity Registry. Verified identity, authenticated once, cryptographically secured – without a corporation sitting in between. No password. No SMS. No code.
A physiotherapy practice offers patients an online portal for appointment booking and medical reports. Instead of building its own login infrastructure, it integrates the ROND API – patients authenticate via their EUDI Wallet. No password, no "forgot password" flow, no user database that can be hacked.
Companies identify themselves via EUDI Business Wallet. Phishing emails pretending to be from Deutsche Bank become impossible – the sender can't fake EUDI verification.
A family doctor defines in ROND: "Contact only from my patients, the lab, and the health insurance association." Everything else never arrives – no spam filter needed because unauthorized messages are structurally undeliverable. A pharma rep would need a government-verified identity AND individual authorization from the doctor.
Encrypted letters to children, released only after death. Structured overview of all online accounts for authorized persons. Crypto asset inheritance, planned via Shamir's Secret Sharing. Powers of attorney with digital activation.
A freelancer has 47 online accounts, three crypto wallets, and a life insurance policy. They store an encrypted overview in ROND and designate their partner as the recipient. Three of their five guardians confirm the death via EUDI – the partner gains access. No notary needed, no password note in a drawer, no "I can't get into their laptop."
Notaries complement traditional estate planning digitally. Insurers verifiably confirm trigger events. Banks operate their own storage nodes. Government agencies communicate with citizens through authorized channels.
A sports club uses ROND across all three layers – members log in via EUDI (no password-reset chaos), the board is only reachable by verified members (no spam on the club email), and the bank account credentials are secured via Legacy Protocol in case something happens to the treasurer.
People don't switch for security. They switch for utility – and get security as a bonus. That's why ROND doesn't start with legacy, but with passwords.
Users sign up because they never want to type a password again. The Identity Registry becomes the sovereign identity provider – without Google or Apple watching every login.
Users who already have their identity in the Registry next control who can send them messages. No separate service – an organic extension of an existing account.
The user is already in the system, understands the mechanics, trusts the infrastructure. The barrier for the legacy question drops dramatically – the Legacy Protocol becomes a logical conclusion, not a morbid entry point.
Conditional on funding being granted. Without approval, this phase shifts.
The EUDI Wallet arrives late 2026 / early 2027. The infrastructure layer on top will be built — the question is whether it will be open and federated, or closed and commercial.