Open Wallet Foundation under the Linux Foundation "Digital wallets will also move to open source"

"The future of digital wallets is in open source. Just as web browsers grew through open standards and open source, wallets must also increase transparency and interoperability based on open source."

At the '2025 Blockchain Promotion Week X Web 3.0 Conference' held on the 4th at COEX in Gangnam, Seoul, Daniel Goldscheider, CEO of the Open Wallet Foundation (OWF), said that digital wallets (virtual asset wallets) will develop on global technical standards and open-source code. The Open Wallet Foundation is a non-profit organization under the Linux Foundation that aims to create an open-source wallet ecosystem where developers worldwide can collaborate under neutral governance.

He said digital wallets are expanding beyond merely storing IDs or credit cards to become an authentication infrastructure covering everyday life, such as boarding passes, virtual assets (cryptocurrencies), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). He explained that for such core systems, open standards are needed rather than closed structures, and that an open-source foundation is essential to secure both interoperability and security. Open source is a method by which developers around the world build and improve the same code together, forming the foundation of open technology. Interoperability refers to the ability of different networks to connect and freely exchange information.

CEO Goldscheider cited the development of web browsers as an example, saying, "The internet could expand rapidly because of public standards like HTTP and HTML," and emphasized, "When digital wallets are developed as open source, efficiency, cost savings, and improved security can be achieved together." He added, "Most digital wallets will operate on an open-source basis in the future," and "Global cooperation among governments, companies, and developers is necessary for this."

Meanwhile, major global companies such as Google, Huawei, Mastercard, and Visa participate as sponsors of the Open Wallet Foundation, which operates around 30 open-source projects. Some of these are used by the United Nations (UN) pension program and the government of British Columbia, Canada.