Eran Haggiag – Rebuilding Digital Identity Around SIM Cards for the AI Era

In this episode of The Future of Identity Podcast, I’m joined by Eran Haggiag, founder and CEO of Glide Identity, to explore a bold vision for the future of digital identity. While much of the industry is focused on wallets, passkeys, and government-issued credentials, Eran argues that the foundation for a global, high-assurance identity system has been sitting in our pockets for decades: the SIM card.

Our conversation examines how Glide is leveraging telco infrastructure, hardware-bound cryptographic keys, and verifiable credentials to create a universal identity layer designed for a future shaped by AI agents, quantum threats, and increasingly sophisticated fraud. We also discuss why phone numbers may be one of the most underappreciated public identifiers in the world and how they could serve as the connective tissue between authentication, verification, and reusable identity.

In this episode we explore:

• Why SIM cards may be the world’s most widely distributed hardware security tokens and how they can provide a foundation for phishing-resistant authentication.

• How Glide’s Magical Auth platform replaces SMS OTP with hardware-bound cryptographic verification tied to mobile networks.

• The role of phone numbers as a universal identity anchor for verifiable credentials, digital wallets, and reusable identity.

• How telcos, banks, governments, and identity providers can contribute credentials to a shared identity ecosystem.

• Why AI agents will need their own identities and how verifiable credentials and delegated authority could power the next generation of agent-to-agent interactions.

This episode is essential listening for anyone thinking about the infrastructure layer of identity in an AI-driven world. Eran offers a fresh perspective on authentication, identity verification, and how existing telecom infrastructure could help accelerate the transition to more secure and interoperable digital identity systems.

Hope you enjoy the conversation and if it resonates, feel free to share it with others interested in where identity is headed.

Learn more about Glide Identity.

Reach out to Riley (@rileyphughes) and Trinsic (@trinsic_id) on Twitter. We’d love to hear from you.

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or find all ways to listen at trinsic.id/podcast.