For years, many of us have been making the case that giving people control over their own data isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s an enormous economic opportunity. But “enormous” isn’t a number, and if you want to move decision makers, you need numbers.
The Dock, Accenture’s innovation lab, recently completed research that explored the opportunity for Ireland to lead Europe’s digital identity transformation, including pulling the thread on the economic value that could be realized for Ireland, grounded in real life events that real people experience every day — getting a passport, accessing health services, enrolling a child in school, receiving a pension, registering a death. Eleven high-volume interactions, two variables (cost saved and time saved), translated into economic output with CSO sector multipliers, and tested across 400+ scenarios.
The finding? By 2030, nearly €8 billion in annual economic value for Ireland alone… not a small chunk of change!
But here’s the thing that matters most to me: those numbers emerge from empowering individuals, not from extracting more from them. The architecture that generates this economic return is the same architecture that puts people in control of their own data, protects their privacy by mathematics rather than by policy promise, and gives them the ability to participate fully in a digital society. Societal benefit and economic impact aren’t in tension. They’re the same thing.
And with the Irish Government Digital Wallet now in public consultation — launched just two weeks ago — this isn’t theoretical anymore. The question isn’t whether this happens. It’s whether we’re ambitious enough to capture the full value.
You can get a copy of the full The Identity Economy White Paper here.
Marie's Ramblings & Ruminations 