# What NIST's mDL guidance means for the future of digital identity

DevFeed: [What NIST's mDL guidance means for the future of digital identity](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/what-nist-s-mdl-guidance-means-for-the-future-of-digital-identity-1942.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://1password.com/blog/nist-mobile-drivers-license-standards>)

Author: info@1password.com (Daryl Martin)

Published: 2026-05-04T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Blog on 1Password Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/blog-on-1password-blog.md>)

Topics: [Security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/security.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/systems.md>)

Tags: [apple](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apple.md>), [collaboration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/collaboration.md>), [cryptographic](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cryptographic.md>), [financial-sector](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/financial-sector.md>), [government](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/government.md>), [identity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/identity.md>), [news](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/news.md>), [open](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>)

## AI overview

NIST's draft guidance on mobile driver's licenses describes how government-issued digital credentials can be cryptographically verified and shared selectively. The article explains the roles of issuers, wallets, and verifiers, and presents mDLs as a more privacy-preserving and interoperable alternative to uploading images of physical IDs.

## Source excerpt

The latest National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) draft guidance on mobile driver's licenses (mDLs) is about more than one use case or credential type. While the draft primarily focuses on the financial sector due to its high-assurance requirements, the bigger takeaway is that government-issued identity can be cryptographically verified and shared more selectively. This provides strong, cryptographically verifiable evidence of identity and shows what a more interoperable digital identity ecosystem could look like 1Password has contributed to the work behind this draft. We believe that identity systems need to be developed through global standards and collaboration across multiple verticals. Open ecosystems scale; closed ones often fail. mDLs replace document uploads with cryptographic verification An mDL is a government-issued verifiable digital credential. It serves as the digital version of your physical driver's license, defined as a highly specified mobile document (mDoc) under international standards. To identify a person with cryptographic trust, the ecosystem relies on three parties: An issuer that signs the credential A wallet that securely stores and presents it A verifier that checks its authenticity A simple real-world example is airport security, where the DMV is the issuer, your Apple Wallet is the wallet, and the TSA is the verifier when you present your mDL. While this might sound more complex than simply flashing a physical ID, the experience can be seamless when implemented well. Historically, users had to upload an image of their driver's license, which exposed their sex, address, weight, and other unnecessary personal data. With an mDL, you securely transmit only the attributes needed for that interaction. For example, you would only expose the state you live in to qualify for services, nothing else in a well defined flow. mDLs turn automated online verification from an image processing problem into a cryptographic verification prob