The wallet demarcation problem

Digital wallets are emerging as new tools that provide citizens with control over their personal data while allowing innovation in service delivery. Wallets promise various functionalities, from authentication, authorisation, and signing, to storage and generating qualified electronic attestations. Given the potential, policymakers and service providers face significant challenges in selecting, developing, implementing, and regulating digital wallets due to the lack of clarity about their characteristics. This paper focuses on this lack of clarity. Through a socio-technical systems theory lens, we developed a comprehensive taxonomy for classifying digital wallets. Our empirical analysis reveals a taxonomy of 47 characteristics in 14 dimensions. The contribution of this taxonomy is two-fold. Firstly, it can help develop a more precise theory on specific types of wallets. Secondly, actors in the field can use the taxonomy for more granular communication on wallet development and adoption challenges, standardisation efforts, and policy development.