The European Parliament passed a bill on the use of zero-knowledge proof technology to protect the privacy of digital wallets of EU citizens by a majority vote.

The bill on the digital identity system was approved by 418 votes to 103 in the plenary session of the European Parliament. The deputies supported the introduction of a norm providing citizens with access to digital public services, bank accounts and assets using personal digital wallets.

Legislation requires the use of uniform norms and zero-knowledge proof technology to protect user privacy during data verification and transmission.

“European digital identity through a personal wallet will be available to EU citizens, residents and businesses who wish to identify themselves or provide proof of certain personal information. It can be used for any online or offline service in the EU.” says
on the website of the European Commission.

The European Commission believes that a single digital gateway will help Europeans save up to 855,000 hours of time annually, and companies more than 11 billion euros.

The proposal to create a blockchain-based information system for the digital identification of citizens of the European Union was first announced in 2021. At that time, the European Commission did not require all EU member states to use any one blockchain technology to implement a pan-European digital identity system.