ID.me Wallet as National Infrastructure

This only works if institutions start treating ID.me as shared trust plumbing, not as a vendor they swap in and out. The wallet gets stronger every time one agency or hospital pays to verify a person once, then another service accepts that same credential for login, eligibility, or record access. That turns identity from a one time check into a reusable layer that lowers fraud, cuts repeat verification, and makes each new attribute card more valuable.

• The product already behaves like infrastructure. ID.me says it had 157 million users and 80 million users verified to federal IAL2 standards by December 2025, and it supports access across 20 federal agencies, 45 states, roughly 70 healthcare organizations, and more than 600 brands. That kind of installed base makes reuse the core economic engine.
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• The business model reinforces the utility logic. Agencies and institutions fund the expensive first verification, including document checks, liveness, and human fallback when automation fails. Merchants and healthcare organizations then pay to accept verified attributes like age, veteran status, or patient identity, so the same wallet can monetize across sectors.
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• The closest substitutes reveal what makes this infrastructure like rather than just app like. Entrust can bundle identity proofing into existing government security contracts, while Apple Wallet and Google Wallet are pushing device native IDs. ID.me is differentiated by cross institution reuse and neutrality across agencies, hospitals, and brands rather than by owning the phone OS.
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The next phase is a shift from login to permissioned access across benefits, healthcare, and regulated commerce. As Medicare.gov rolls out ID.me in 2026 and platform wallets expand digital ID acceptance, the winning identity layer will be the one institutions trust to work everywhere, for everyone, and across many kinds of verified claims.