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A Verifiable Claims Primer

by Manu Sporny, Digital Bazaar

Introduction

It is currently difficult to transmit credentials such as driver's licenses, proofs of age, education qualifications, and healthcare data, via the Internet in a way that is verifiable yet protects individual privacy. These credentials are composed of statements called verifiable claims.

Starting in 2013, the W3C Credentials Community Group started to work in earnest on solutions in this space followed shortly thereafter by the Rebooting Web of Trust Community and W3C Verifiable Claims Working Group. These groups, composed of 150+ individuals and organizations, are currently focused on the creation, storage, transmission, and verification of digital credentials via the Internet.

This document is a primer for those that want to learn about the Verifiable Claims initiative, the use cases and ecosystem, a basic overview of the technology, and how to get involved.

Use Cases

Verifiable Claims are useful when a person needs to prove that they are:

  • above a certain age,
  • capable of driving a particular motor vehicle,
  • require a particular medication,
  • trained and certified as an electrician,
  • professionally licensed to practice medicine, and
  • cleared to travel internationally.

The use cases above are merely a high-level introduction to the problem space. Readers that would like to explore the use cases in more detail are urged to read the Verifiable Claims Working Groups' Use Cases document.

Ecosystem

The Verifiable Claims ecosystem is composed of four primary roles:

  • The Issuer, who issues verifiable credentials about a specific Subject.
  • The Holder stores credentials on behalf of a Subject. Holders are typically also the Subject of a credential.
  • The Verifier requests a profile of the Subject. A profile contains a specific set of credentials. The verifier verifies that the credentials provided in the profile are fit-for-purpose.
  • The Identifier Registry is a mechanism that is used to issue identifiers for Subjects.

A visual depiction of the ecosystem above is shown below:

Claims, Credentials, and Profiles

The ecosystem roles exchange data that enables the realization of the previously mentioned use cases. The data that is exchanged differs based on the roles participating, but is fundamentally composed of Claims, Credentials, and Profiles.

A claim is statement about a subject, expressed as a subject-property-value relationship:

The data model for claims described above is powerful and can be used to express a large variety of statements. For example, whether or not someone is over the age of 21 may be expressed as follows:

These claims may be merged together to express a graph of information about a particular subject. The example below extends the data model above by adding claims that state that Pat knows Sam and that Sam is a student.

When an Issuer sends data to a Holder, it bundles a set of claims into a data structure called a credential and digitally signs the data structure:

When a Verifier asks for data from a Holder, the Holder typically bundles a set of credentials into a data structure called a profile and digitally signs the data structure:

The depictions above are a high-level introduction to the data model and gloss over specifics. Readers that would like to explore the data model in more depth are urged to read the Verifiable Claims Working Groups' Data Model Specification.

Participating

If you would like to participate in shaping this work, there are multiple ways to participate:

  1. If you want weekly updates and are NOT a W3C Member, or want to participate in the more experimental work, you should join the Credentials Community Group. The W3C Credentials Community Group holds weekly calls that are open to the public.
  2. If you want weekly updates and are a W3C Member, you should join the Verifiable Claims Working Group. The W3C Verifiable Claims Working Group holds weekly calls that are open to W3C Members.
  3. We hold bi-yearly face-to-face meetings in the spring and fall at Rebooting Web of Trust and once a year in the fall at the W3C Technical Plenary.

The groups are very inclusive and welcome input and participation people from all disciplines and levels of expertise.