Tap, Verify, Enter: Modernizing Physical Access with EUDI Wallets
Adam Hussain
Dynamically Securing Critical Infrastructure Access Through Project DECISIVE
In corporate and industrial environments, physical access control frequently manifests as a persistent operational bottleneck. Upon arriving at a new facility or high-assurance site, visitors and external contractors are routinely subjected to redundant manual checks to verify identity, organizational affiliation, and compliance with site-specific rules. While intended to maintain security, these traditional entry procedures generate administrative friction and unnecessary delays.
This issue is compounded on critical infrastructure sites, where physical entry requires active, specialized health and safety certifications. Static plastic RFID smartcards, the prevailing industry standard, merely indicate who an individual claimed to be when the card was manufactured. They cannot confirm whether a contractor's safety clearance expired yesterday or whether a technician possesses the dynamic operational skills required to enter a high-risk zone today. When central network outages occur, facility managers are left facing a difficult trade-off between costly operational downtime and unsafe perimeter defaults.
Against this backdrop, Impierce Technologies has been awarded a grant from the European Union’s CITADEL EuroClusters program to officially launch Project DECISIVE (Dual-use EUDI Credentials for Infrastructure Security In Verifiable Environments).
As Product Owner at Impierce, my primary focus throughout this 9-month pilot is translating high-assurance security standards into practical product enhancements that resolve daily access friction for organizations and workers alike. Partnering with the Dutch Ministry of Defence (Ministerie van Defensie), alongside hardware component partner ZKTeco Europe, DECISIVE demonstrates how European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallets and zero-trust edge verification can modernize perimeter security.
Upgrading the Impierce Digital Identity Stack
To address these operational challenges, we are enhancing our integrated product suite across three distinct functional layers:
UniTrust (Business Wallet): Serves as our credential lifecycle and trust management engine. Facility and security managers gain real-time control to issue, update, revoke, and manage digital credentials, from contractor safety passes to specialized technical skills, in seconds, ending reliance on static physical badges.
UniCore (Self-Sovereign Identity Agent): Optimized for zero-trust, low-latency verification directly at physical access points (such as door readers and turnstiles). UniCore mathematically verifies presented qualifications at the edge in under two seconds while operating 100% offline. In the event of a facility-wide network or cloud outage, access points continue authenticating credentials locally without missing a beat or defaulting to unsafe perimeter states.
UniMe (Personal Wallet): Replaces plastic smartcards with a tap-and-go mobile experience via smartphone (using NFC or Bluetooth). Built on privacy-by-design principles, workers present cryptographically bound proof of their active qualifications without exposing unnecessary personal identity details.
Strategic Impact for Facility and IT Leaders
Overall, Project DECISIVE demonstrates that high-assurance physical security need not be fragile, administrative, or environmentally wasteful. By bridging eIDAS 2.0 digital identity mandates and NIS2 cyber-physical security requirements with Green IT principles, we are establishing an exportable blueprint. This initiative eliminates toxic PVC plastic badges, reduces administrative overhead, and enhances perimeter security, whether central networks remain online or go offline. Furthermore, by transforming skills verification into portable digital assets, DECISIVE supports cross-sector labor mobility, allowing qualified personnel to carry verified credentials across different employers.
