Digital identity infrastructure from 51nodes creates the basis for mobility services with billion-euro potential
Stuttgart, 30th September 2026 – The flagship project Gaia-X 4 moveID, part of the Gaia-X 4 Future Mobility project family, has successfully laid the technological and economic foundations for digital mobility services in the smart city of the future. As the central technology partner, Stuttgart-based 51nodes GmbH was not only responsible for the architecture of the digital identity infrastructure, but also provided important building blocks for a potential billion-euro market through modern open-source software and economic simulations.
Strong alliance led by Bosch: 18 partners for the mobility of tomorrow
The moveID joint project focused on decentralised digital vehicle identities in a highly networked transport environment and involved a total of 18 project partners. In addition to Bosch, which led the project, the leading partners who played a key role in the development and demonstrations included 51nodes GmbH, Datarella, deltaDAO, DENSO, HTW Saar and peaq. Dr Achim Klein from 51nodes was responsible for organising and coordinating sub-project 2, which formed the technological core and defined the identity infrastructure and ecosystem fundamentals.
Breaking down data silos: Decentralised identities instead of proprietary isolated solutions
The project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, addressed the challenge of transitioning mobility services from proprietary isolated solutions to an open, self-determined data ecosystem. By using self-sovereign identities (SSI), moveID enables a decentralised ecosystem that revolutionises digital mobility services such as an ‘Airbnb for parking and charging’ electric vehicles. 51nodes played a leading role in the technology evaluation and the joint development of the system architecture to enable cross-provider exchange between vehicles and data infrastructure as well as service providers without central intermediaries.
From concept to code: Open-source framework and economic validation
The technical feasibility was already demonstrated at the IAA Mobility trade fair in 2023 with the ‘Park & Charge’ demonstrator on the road with real vehicles and traffic infrastructure. 51nodes developed the core infrastructure for SSI-based authentication of the service.
As the project progressed, 51nodes aimed to create software that could be used sustainably beyond the scope of the project. Instead of a pure demo solution, 51nodes therefore developed the ‘Mobility SSI Framework’.
The Mobility SSI is a software framework that relies on modern standards (OID4VC/VP) and is based on the walt.id community stack. It is available as open source to lower the barriers to the usability of SSI in the mobility sector.
Another important result is economic validation. Using an agent-based simulation, 51nodes demonstrated that a decentralised ecosystem for digital mobility services can be successfully launched. Simulated incentives proved effective in solving the ‘chicken-and-egg problem’ and attracting enough providers to the platform.
A billion-pound market for digital mobility services is emerging
The outlook for the moveID platform is characterised by strong growth in the field of digital mobility services in Europe. The economic analysis forecasts growth in the total addressable market in the EU of up to €57.8 billion in 2040 for the four main use cases from the project (smart parking, road condition monitoring, zoning and data provenance). Smart parking in particular represents the largest single market. Orchestrating these services via a decentralised infrastructure offers considerable revenue potential for platform operators. The moveID platform’s share of revenue as an enabler of these services could amount to an estimated €1.1 billion in 2040 for the use cases identified.
51nodes helps companies shape their digital future
With the successful completion of the project, the consortium has laid the technical and economic foundations for a trustworthy, decentralised ecosystem for digital mobility services. The open-source framework for self-sovereign identities published by 51nodes at the end of the project serves as a technological starting point for companies that want to use this technology.
Here it is available on GitHub.
About 51nodes GmbH
51nodes, a technology company based in Stuttgart, has been helping companies develop and implement digital innovations since 2018. The team combines proven structures with new technologies to introduce digital, collaborative and decentralised approaches in companies.
51nodes works with innovation teams from medium-sized and large companies in the automotive, finance and energy sectors to create the technical foundations for digital business models. To this end, the company develops open-source software solutions that work without vendor lock-in. 51nodes supports companies such as Bosch, Honda and the Stuttgart Stock Exchange in exploiting growth opportunities and tapping into new business areas in the digital economy.