A fiduciary in Winterthur has a client who reads the headlines. The client holds a licensing agreement and a folder of design files he wants on record, and he wants to wait. "The e-ID is coming," he says. "Then I can sign everything properly." The answer starts with what the e-ID actually is.
What the Swiss e-ID is
The Federal Office of Justice puts it in two sentences on eid.admin.ch: "The e-ID is an official means of identification issued by the state. It is a free and optional complementary offer to the physical identity card." It lives in a wallet app called swiyu, and it runs on a trust infrastructure that the state operates.
The Federal Act on Electronic Identity and Other Electronic Credentials was accepted in the popular vote of 28 September 2025 with 50.39% yes, as the Federal Council news of 25 February 2026 records. The same notice adds that issuers must register the data they want to request, and its purpose, in a public federal register, and that an unauthorized request, the example given is the AHV number, is blocked by the swiyu wallet.
That is identification. A party asks who you are, and the wallet answers with state-issued data.
Where it stands
Not in anyone's pocket yet. In its notice of 30 June 2026, the FOJ postponed the introduction of the e-ID. There is no new date. One will be announced once security work is largely complete, including measures against malware on end-user devices and deepfake detection in online issuance.
Two things go ahead regardless. The trust infrastructure is expected to become operational in the first half of 2027. The Federal Council will enact the E-ID Act at least in part as of that date, so that other electronic credentials can be issued; the example given is the electronic driving licence. A post on the e-ID site from 15 September 2026 says the FOJ is preparing the launch campaign from 2027.
Anyone waiting for the e-ID is waiting for a date nobody has published.
Three questions that look alike
"Who is this person?" is identification. The e-ID is built to answer it.
"Did this person sign this document?" is a signature, and a signature is a separate thing under Swiss law. A qualified electronic signature is what the Federal Act on Electronic Signatures (ZertES) and Article 14 paragraph 2bis of the Code of Obligations describe: a qualified certificate from a recognized provider plus a qualified time stamp. Article 14 paragraph 2bis deems that combination equivalent to a handwritten signature, subject to any statutory or contractual provision to the contrary. The e-ID pages do not describe the e-ID as an electronic signature. We leave it there.
"Did this exact file exist at this time?" is a dated proof, and that is a third thing again. Under Article 41(2) of the eIDAS Regulation, a qualified electronic time stamp enjoys the presumption of the accuracy of the date and time it indicates and of the integrity of the data to which they are bound. The stamp is bound to a cryptographic fingerprint of the file, not to a person.
What a sealed document answers today
On Swiss Trust Layer you upload a file into a folder. A cryptographic fingerprint of the document is computed, and that fingerprint, not the file, goes to Swisscom Trust Services, the qualified trust service provider, which signs it with a key that never leaves its hardware. The signature already contains an RFC 3161 timestamp from Swisscom. That signature is embedded back into the PDF. The original file is never altered.
From that moment the third question has an answer for that file. If someone edits a copy, the fingerprint differs, and the public validator reports that the content was modified after signing. Anyone can run that check by uploading the signed PDF, with no account and no registration. The validator recognizes qualified signatures under both eIDAS and ZertES.
What the timestamp does not do is worth saying out loud, because the other side will. It does not prove who wrote the file or whether its contents are true. It does not prove who owns the rights.
Where identity comes in, without the e-ID
The question of who is behind the seal has an answer today as well. Identity verification on the portal is a passport check through DIDIT, provided via Swisscom Trust Services. When a folder version is sealed after that check, the certificate of proof for that version carries an identity block: surname, name, date of birth, country, and the passport number shown as asterisks. The snapshot is taken at sealing time, so a later identity change never rewrites an issued certificate.
If you sealed before verifying, the certificate for that same version can be updated with your verified identity and the ISCC data of its files. No new version is created, and the hashes of the issued version do not change.
The certificate also carries a QR code that opens the public verification page for that folder and version, with no login.
Why waiting costs you the dates
Nothing dated can be created retroactively. A time stamp records the moment it was issued, and no provider can issue one for last March. If a design file matters now, the proof that it existed now has to be made now. Whatever the e-ID becomes once it ships, it will not reach back to a file left unsealed in October 2026.
That is the answer for the client in Winterthur. The e-ID will tell people who he is, and it is postponed with no date. His files need a dated fingerprint, which exists today, with a passport check on the certificate if he wants one.
One step this week
Pick the one file whose date you would least like to argue about from memory. Upload it and seal it. If who is behind it matters, run the passport check too, so the certificate carries your identity. Keep the sealed file and its certificate in more than one place. When the e-ID arrives, you will have lost nothing by not waiting.
Seal your first document on Swiss Trust Layer or read the full mechanism on how it works.
