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Travel & Hospitality · Recorded milestone

Chip passport

Recorded year1998

Malaysia issues the first biometric passports with a chip holding the holder's details and photo.

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Built on

Standard passport bookletRecorded · 1920enables
Integrated circuitRecorded · 1958enables
Public-key cryptographyRecorded · 1976requires

Led to

Face-scan boardingRecorded · 2018enables
Digital identity walletsForecast · ~2027enables
Portable global identityForecast · ~2029enables
Phone credentials replace passportsForecast · ~2030enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.