Mobile Driver's License (mDL)
A driver's license issued to a phone wallet under the ISO/IEC 18013-5 standard, presentable in person and increasingly online. It supports selective disclosure, letting a holder share only age or a photo rather than the full document. Rolling out across US states and other jurisdictions.
mDL is the first widely deployed verifiable credential most people will actually hold, and its in-person mode is what makes it different: the verifier reads it over NFC or QR without network access, so a bar can check age offline. The online presentation path is newer and converging with the OpenID4VP stack the EU wallet uses, which is why mDL and EUDI are increasingly the same technical conversation.
See also: digital wallet, selective disclosure, verifiable credentials, national digital ID schemes
Related on Start with Identity
- GlossaryBBS Signature
A signature scheme that lets a holder reveal only a subset of the fields in a credential while keeping the issuer's single signature valid, without the issuer's
- GlossaryDecentralized Identifier (DID)
A W3C standard identifier that a subject controls without a central registry, resolvable to a document with keys and endpoints. A building block of decentralize
- GlossarySD-JWT
Selective Disclosure JWT. A token format that lets a holder reveal only chosen claims from a credential, used for privacy-preserving verifiable credentials and
- StandardISO/IEC 18013-5 Mobile Driver's License (mDL)
ISO/IEC 18013-5 is the standard for driver's licenses issued to a phone wallet, with selective disclosure in person and, via 18013-7, online. It is the fastest-