People might start to pay attention soon, because an early identity management system is now commercially available through Microsoft Vista, the company's recently released operating system. Microsoft's technology is called CardSpace, and it also acts like a digital wallet, but it differs from Idemix in a couple of ways. One major difference is that Idemix is open-source software that can be used by any software developer to make applications for myriad technologies, from Web browsers to mobile phones.

Another difference is that CardSpace must ping an identity provider (such as the DMV) each time you need to have personal information verified, says Mike Neuenschwander, an analyst for Burton Group, an IT research and advisory firm. Idemix, on the other hand, allows you to maintain a collection of your tokens yourself, once they've been initially issued, either on your hard drive or in some other way, he says, so the identity provider doesn't have to be contacted. There could be an advantage here, as the logistics of continuously contacting many different types of identity providers could be challenging.

While CardSpace is already available through Vista, Idemix won't be available as a product for months. However, there are projects under way to develop Idemix plug-ins for browsers, says IBM's Nagaratnam, and the goal is to integrate the technology into browsers like Firefox within a year. "Building an application will take some time," he says, "but we believe it will take off soon."

"In another year, people are going to start seeing the value [of Idemix]," says Clippinger. And when they do, he says, "it will be a very big deal."