Integrating the Swiss e-ID and swiyu API

swiyu is the name of both the official Swiss trust infrastructure and the wallet app provided by the federal government. The latter issues the e-ID that is then stored in the swiyu wallet on the holder's smartphone – there is no centralized database that maintains identity information. The swiyu trust infrastructure uses open standards such as OpenID4VC (OIDC4VCI / OIDC4VP) and SD-JWT for verifiable credentials, as well as did:webvh for decentralized identifiers. It is designed for interoperability with the EU's eIDAS 2.0 framework.

«e-ID Act» is the official abbreviation of the «Federal Act on Electronic Identification Services». It forms the legal basis for the Swiss e-ID and the swiyu trust infrastructure. The e-ID Act took effect following the public vote in September 2025. It allows both the public and the private sector to issue, hold, and verify digital credentials.

Organizations must first enroll as verifiers in the swiyu trust registry. Integration is done via the swiyu verifier API, which allows applications to request and verify specific attributes from the swiyu wallet of a user, e.g., age, identity, or address. Adnovum provides end-to-end integration services for the e-ID: use case evaluation, verifier onboarding, API integration, and production. The swiyu public beta environment has been available for integration and testing since March 2025.

Banks and financial service providers benefit from automated KYC and digital account opening. Insurance companies eliminate paper-based application processes and media discontinuities. Swiss cantons and municipalities can offer a verified citizen login and digital government services. At events, it is possible to conduct immediate, privacy-friendly age verification checks at the entrance. Transportation and logistics providers verify driver credentials digitally. All use cases benefit from the same core feature: cryptographically verified identities with selective disclosure. The verifier can securely determine an identity while receiving only the attributes it needs.

«Selective disclosure» means that when a person presents their e-ID, they do not share all of their data, but only the specific attributes required for a particular interaction. E.g., an age check at an event venue returns only: «Older than 18: yes» – without revealing a name, date of birth, or other data. This is a core privacy-by-design principle of the e-ID Act and the swiyu infrastructure, implemented via SD-JWT (Selective Disclosure JSON Web Token).

Technically, yes. The Swiss e-ID and the swiyu trust infrastructure are designed to be interoperable with the EU eIDAS 2.0 framework and the EU Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet). Both use overlapping open standards (OpenID4VC, SD-JWT). However, mutual contractual recognition is still lacking. Nevertheless, there are ways to implement cross-border use cases with the trust infrastructure even now.

A typical e-ID integration project with Adnovum begins with a 2–4-week use case workshop and a regulatory assessment. This results in a concrete roadmap for implementation. Pilot implementations using the swiyu public beta environment can be completed within 6–12 weeks. The time required for production-ready integrations varies depending on complexity.