As Europe moves from EUDI wallet pilots to real deployment, one uncomfortable truth is emerging: wallets are easy — certified infrastructure is not..The recent collaboration between Ubiqu and Thales puts that reality front and centre. Rather than focusing on features or interfaces, the emphasis is on something far less visible but far more decisive: how cryptographic keys are generated, stored, and operated inside certified, sovereign environments that actually pass eIDAS 2.0 scrutiny.
eIDAS 2.0 raises the bar significantly. Governments, trust service providers, and wallet operators are now expected to meet eIDAS High assurance, WSCA/WSCD requirements, and Article 30 trust listing — while also planning for crypto agility and long-term resilience. That combination is where many pilot projects quietly stall.
“Remote HSMs and certified Remote Secure Elements are no longer niche technologies; they are becoming the backbone of Europe’s digital trust infrastructure. Our collaboration with Thales shows how collaboration between trusted global players and agile innovators can accelerate the safe rollout of EUDI wallets across Europe.
– Boris Goranov, CEO Ubiqu
By integrating Remote Secure Element technology directly with certified Hardware Security Modules, the Ubiqu–Thales approach is aimed at removing one of the biggest friction points: years of bespoke security engineering and certification work before anything can go live. Whether this becomes a reference model or not, it clearly reflects where the market is heading.
What’s changing is the nature of the problem. The EUDI conversation is no longer about can a wallet be built?
It’s about who can operate one at national and cross-border scale, under continuous regulatory and cryptographic pressure.
As post-quantum readiness, sovereignty, and compliance move from policy papers into procurement checklists, infrastructure stops being background plumbing and becomes the deciding factor.
That’s the shift now underway — and it will determine which EUDI initiatives make it beyond the pilot phase.