Serenity Thompson Deputy Director of Digital Services | State of California DMV
The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has recognized several companies for their innovative use cases of the California mobile driver's license (mDL) at its inaugural community hackathon. The event took place on October 1, 2024, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View and attracted over 50 participants from leading private sector businesses and innovators.
Participants presented various use cases aimed at enhancing secure, privacy-focused digital identity solutions using the mDL. The hackathon showcased the potential applications of mDLs across different industries, including financial services and retail, focusing on privacy, security, user experience, and social impact.
Several teams received recognition for their contributions:
- Team Entidad was acknowledged as "Most Compelling and Most Socially Impactful" for integrating mDL into nonprofit efforts to enroll underserved community members into social benefits programs.
- Team Cisco VC Verifiers earned the title of "Most Promising" by proposing mDL as a root digital identity to enable passwordless authentication.
- Team Block won "Best Privacy and Security Design" for using mDL in point-of-sale age verification for age-restricted products sold by Square merchants.
- Team US Bank was recognized as "Most Scalable" with a proposal to implement mDL for in-person identity verification at bank branches during high-risk transactions.
- Team UltraPass received accolades for "Best User Experience," combining mDL with encrypted biometric authentication to streamline account creation and prevent duplicate accounts.
- Team MATTR (comprising MATTR, Samsung, Treez, Nuvei) delivered the "Best Presentation," showcasing mDL's role in identity and age verification within cannabis dispensary and delivery services.
- Team UFI earned recognition for the "Best Independent Submission" by integrating mDL into existing Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems.
The hackathon was co-hosted by the OpenID Foundation. It highlighted growing acceptance of mDL technology as a convenient, secure identity verification option that could help reduce fraud while improving operational efficiency. The DMV plans to continue exploring this technology through future events. A second hackathon is scheduled for November 1 in Sacramento focusing on public sector applications with participation from local, state, federal, and international government entities.
The DMV’s ongoing mDL pilot program is available through the California DMV Wallet app with over 780,000 Californians already participating. More information can be found at dmv.ca.gov/mdl.
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