We live in an era of increasing connectivity and accelerating change. For example, in Europe, the ongoing digital transformation will most likely lead to the full digitisation of the paperwork necessary for the free movement of goods, services, capital and people within the European single market. Consequently, the numerous paper documents with official value, e.g. printed on paper or plastic cards, will no longer have a physical existence, as they too will become digital. This paper discusses

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... he implications and challenges associated to the digitisation of paper documents issued by government entities with official value. As government and its services become digital, the well-established in-person verification processes reliant on these documents will also change. Even if it is safe to say that, in the future, official documents and associated checks will become digital by default, the way to do it is not obvious and it is difficult to know how long the transition period will last and how many intermediate points there will be. One thing is for sure, this transformation represents a great opportunity for society. Ultimately, once completed, this transition will ultimately lead to faster and cheaper online verification processes with the same level of trust, or even higher, than everyday traditional paper-based checks.