Tractis closes its doors

Tractis will cease to provide electronic certification services on April 30th, 2018.

It has not been easy to make this decision. However, given the current market status, we believe is the right decision.

Although we offer multiple methods of identity verification and electronic signatures, our focus and passion has always been on those methods that offer the highest level of guarantee and security. That is, the e-ID’s issued by governments.

In Spain, our main market, this option was and still is the DNIe, the national electronic ID card.

However, the DNIe never got traction in the Spanish private sector. A failure that has multiple causes. AtTractis we have fought them all to the extent of our possibilities:

• Lack of readers: We carried out the first campaign for mass distribution of readers for DNIe ever in Spain (2009).
• Lack of usability: We developed the first solution that allowed the use of DNIe without having to install drivers (2010).
• Lack of success stories: We achieved the first cases of use of the DNIe in a multitude of verticals. Among others; the opening of bank accounts (2008), the on-line signature of Popular Legislative Initiatives (2011), the online endorsements for aspiring candidates in political parties elections (2011), identity verification in telecommunications (2012) or consumer financing (2014). We offered free services for political intiatives (2011) and startups (2012) to foster new and innovative DNIe use cases.
• Competition by the FNMT: We repeatedly denounced the harmful effect the FNMT (the Spanish Mint) actions had on the DNIe adoption by the private sector. Not the least, the preferential treatment given by the Spanish Public Administration to the FNMT certificates (2011) and the FNMT pricing policies (2014). We offered free validation of FNMT certificates as soon as it was possible (2016).

The sluggishness of the public administration in responding to the demands of the market in regard to the DNIe have contributed to a very large extent to the failure of the DNIe in the private sector. As an example, it took 4 years to publish the DNIe Manual for APDU commands, 10 years to extend the life of the DNIe certificates, 11 years to eliminate the FNMT harmful price system (paid validation in the private sector) and only when the European Union has forced the FNMT to do so … The private sector requires agility, responses in days, weeks or even months. Never years. Never decades.

Regrettably, the latest news signal that the use of the DNIe in the private sector in Spain will not only not improve, but will get rather worse. On the one hand, the harsh incorporation of the EU eIDAS Directive into the Spanish national legislation (compare the financial requirements needed to become a Qualified Provider of Electronic Trust Services in Spain VS. Estonia, the leading country in the use of e-IDs). On the other hand, the vulnerability recently discovered in the DNIe that forces the deactivation and re-issue of virtually all DNIe’s issued to date, a process that will take years.

We remain convinced of the enormous potential of e-IDs for secure e-commerce. Simply, and as much as it hurts, we have had to come to the conclusion that Spain is not just the place to try to realize this potential.

It is not easy for us to take this step, but we believe it is the right thing to do. After 13 years of struggle, the time has come to throw in the towel. Sad and exhausted, yes, but also proud of the work done and extremely grateful to all the customers, suppliers and investors who have trusted us.

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Related: Tractis ceases operations: Next steps & Important dates.

By David Blanco
Saved in: Announcements | 1 comment » | 20 February 2018