Pioneering a New Era of Trusted, User-Centric Digital Identity

Tokyo, April 2025 – In a world where identity is the gateway to education, work, and daily life, the need for secure, user-controlled, and globally trusted solutions has never been greater. This is magnified by a world that is becoming increasingly more connected and digital. Today, TOPPAN Edge and Partisia announce a groundbreaking partnership and proof-of-concept at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), aiming to redefine how digital identity works for students. This solution is a bedrock for digital identity, with applications that can span industries and use cases. 

This collaboration is more than a technical integration. It’s a shared vision to bridge the familiar convenience of web2 with the trust, privacy, and interoperability of web3. By combining TOPPAN Edge’s 100+ years’ experience, including a 33% market share in Japanese ID systems, with Partisia’s advanced cryptography and blockchain solutions, the partnership is setting a new standard for privacy-first, decentralized, digital identity (DID).

Why Digital Identity Needs an Upgrade

Japan alone has over 813 universities, 360 of which issue IDs with IC chips (FeliCa). This involves a process that is costly, slow, and increasingly vulnerable to impersonation and fraud. Meanwhile, students already carry NFC-enabled smartphones and are accustomed to seamless, app-based, digital experiences. The challenge is to deliver a digital identity solution that is as easy to use as a tap on your phone, but as secure and private as the most advanced cryptography can provide.

At the same time, global standards are rising. The EU’s eIDAS 2.0 and Japan’s Trusted Web initiative demand solutions that are not only secure and user-centric but also interoperable across borders and compliant with the latest privacy regulations. The answer lies in a hybrid approach: leveraging the best of web2 user experience and web3’s decentralized trust infrastructure.

The Solution: Hybrid Architecture for Mass Adoption

The OIST pilot brings together the strengths of both partners in a layered, future-proof architecture:

• Issuance: Student photos are captured via TOPPAN Edge’s CloakOne® cloud service, then encrypted using Partisia’s secure multi-party computation (MPC) technology. This ensures that sensitive biometric data never leaves the user’s device unprotected.
• Registry: Decentralized identifiers and credential hashes are anchored on the Partisia blockchain, providing a tamper-proof, transparent audit trail that meets eIDAS 2.0 and Trusted Web requirements.
• Wallet: Students receive a white-label mobile wallet app, allowing them to tap their phone for campus access, exam check-in, and more, without ever exposing personal information to third parties.
• Verification: Exams, facility doors, and other checkpoints verify credentials in under a second, using cryptographic proofs and, when needed, on-chain checks for revocation or status.

This hybrid model ensures that universities can adopt the system with minimal disruption, while students benefit from privacy, security, and convenience.

PI vs. PBC: Who Does What?

A key innovation of this project is the clear division of roles between Partisia Infrastructure (PI) and Partisia Blockchain (PBC):

• PI (Partisia Infrastructure): Delivers the enterprise-grade, private SaaS stack, handling wallet UI, credential issuance, and fast, off-chain verification. This ensures a smooth, Web2-like experience for users and institutions.
• PBC (Partisia Blockchain): Provides the public, decentralized trust layer anchoring DIDs, managing revocation lists, and enabling transparent, on-chain auditability. Over time, more components (such as registry smart contracts and credential verification) will migrate to the public chain, unlocking new business models and tokenized incentives.

This architecture not only future-proofs the solution but also positions it for mass adoption, both in Japan and globally.

The OIST Pilot: A Blueprint for the Future

From June to September 2025, the pilot at OIST will involve up to 50 participants from the incubator facility. While the immediate focus is on access control within a university setting, the broader goal is to lay the groundwork for a scalable, privacy-first digital identity infrastructure. 

This proof of concept begins with private issuance and verification to ensure the system functions seamlessly in a controlled environment. It then progresses to integration with Partisia’s public blockchain, the release of a public-facing wallet, and the deployment of an on-chain credential registry.

Crucially, this pilot is not the end state. It’s a critical foundation. The architecture being tested is designed to evolve beyond student IDs and campus access, opening the door to applications in IoT, payment infrastructure, and digital identity systems for employers, healthcare, and beyond. By anchoring this work to the Partisia blockchain, this collaboration supports the long-term goals of Japan’s Trusted Web initiative, offering a decentralized, interoperable solution where user control and privacy are built in from the start.

Key performance indicators include sub-second check-in times, zero false-accepts, and full compliance with GDPR and eIDAS audit requirements. The success of the pilot will be a critical first step in building the next generation of secure, user-centric identity systems.

Beyond Campus: Expanding Use Cases

The potential of this platform extends far beyond student IDs. Future applications include:

• Digital diplomas and alumni IDs: Credentials that can be transferred to job-market wallets or used for cross-border student exchanges.
• IoT and smart city access: Linking digital identities to physical infrastructure, such as transport systems, public buildings, or municipal services.
• Payments and financial onboarding: Integration with digital wallets and financial institutions, enabling identity-verified transactions and seamless KYC flows in compliance with local and global regulations.
• Healthcare and government IDs: Leveraging Toppan’s market leadership in ID card printing to bring privacy-first digital identity to hospitals, workforce credentials, and public services.
• Event ticketing and supply chain: Fraud-proof passes and staff IDs, with on-chain revocation and auditability.

By anchoring these use cases on a public blockchain, the solution ensures interoperability, transparency, and long-term trust.

Token Utility and On-Chain Activity

As the ecosystem grows, the Partisia blockchain will play an increasingly vital role in securing and governing digital identities. While the initial focus is on establishing a robust and user-friendly platform, future iterations may include:

• On-chain verification: Enabling verifiers to check credential status directly on the blockchain, reducing reliance on issuers and enhancing trust.
• Tokenized incentives: Introducing staking mechanisms and fees (potentially in $MPC) for issuers and verifiers, aligning incentives and fostering a sustainable ecosystem.
• Governance: Evolving the platform into a decentralized governance framework for digital identity, ensuring community participation and long-term viability.

These features will not only enhance the utility of Partisia blockchain but also create new opportunities for innovation and value creation.

Executive Perspectives

“By fusing TOPPAN’s proven access-control hardware with Partisia’s privacy tech, we’re making the jump from Web2 convenience to Web3 trust, and setting a new global benchmark.”
Mark Medum Bundgaard, Chief Product Officer, Partisia

“This collaboration lays the foundation for a new data economy where confidential student data can finally be activated without ever being exposed.”
Kurt Nielsen, CEO & Co-founder, Partisia Blockchain

“Japan is embracing blockchain to make identity both secure and user-centric. With Partisia, privacy is built-in from day one.”
Masatoshi Oka, General Manager, ID Business Management Division, TOPPAN Edge

What’s Next

Building on the outcomes of the OIST pilot, the roadmap for this collaboration intends on exploring:

• Broader access to the SDK: Expanding availability to additional universities and institutional partners for experimentation and integration.
• Ecosystem development: Extending digital identity use cases into healthcare, smart cities, and workforce credentials. Both in Japan and globally.
• User experience refinement: Iterating on wallet design, onboarding flows, and credential management to meet the needs of diverse user groups.
• Decentralized governance and incentives: Exploring staking models and token utility ($MPC) to align incentives across issuers, verifiers, and users.
• Regulatory engagement: Supporting compliance efforts aligned with frameworks such as eIDAS 2.0 and Japan’s Trusted Web, while promoting interoperability at an international level.

Institutions, developers, and regulators interested in early collaboration can find out more from our presentation at the European Identity & Cloud Conference on May 6, 2025, in Berlin.

About the Partners

TOPPAN Edge is a group company of TOPPAN Holdings, established in Tokyo in 1900. As a leader in digital transformation, security, and integrated solutions, TOPPAN Edge is dedicated to solving corporate and social challenges with cutting-edge approaches, including Hybrid-BPO® and advanced payment services. With a 33% market share in Japanese ID systems, TOPPAN Edge is uniquely positioned to drive the adoption of privacy-first digital identity solutions.

Partisia is a Denmark-based pioneer in privacy-preserving blockchain and secure multi-party computation (MPC). Founded by world leaders in cryptography, Partisia launched the world’s first commercial MPC solution in 2008 and now empowers enterprises and developers to build decentralized applications with privacy at their core.

Privacy isn’t an add-on; it’s in the protocol. Join us as we bring user-centric identity to every corner of the internet.

About Partisia Blockchain

Partisia Blockchain is an innovative, public, data ownership and privacy-preserving layer-1 blockchain built for real-world utility. Combining zero-knowledge proofs and secure multi-party computation (MPC), it empowers developers and enterprises to build decentralized applications with data privacy at the core. From RWAs and digital identity to supply chain and AI, Partisia is driving the next generation of blockchain use cases across web2 and web3 industries.

Read More 

Announcements can be found from our partners at Toppan and Partisia below. 

• Toppan
  
• Partisia

Ready to build a more confidential, scalable future?
Join the us at partisiablockchain.com and on X • Discord •  Telegram • LinkedIn • Facebook • Instagram • GitLab • Medium • YouTube