Veres One and Verifiable Credentials

Credentials play a significant role in our everyday lives. Driver's licenses are used to assert that we are capable of operating a motor vehicle. University degrees can be used to assert our level of education. Government-issued passports enable holders to travel between countries.

Verifiable Credentials are a type of digital credential. They are cryptographically secure, privacy-respecting, and automatically verifiable. The World Wide Web Consortium is currently undertaking global standards work on Verifiable Credentials.

Veres One supports these new types of Verifiable Credentials. The Veres One system enables more secure and efficient exchange of customer and employee credentials (ID cards, digital offers, receipts, tickets) across a wide variety of industries: government, education, healthcare, financial services. Other benefits include reduced risk and easier regulatory compliance.

Issuers

Issuers enable organizations to supply digital credentials to customers and employees, who can optionally manage their own information. Organizations no longer carry the responsibility of administering their users’ sensitive data.

A digital credential is made tamper-proof through the use of advanced cryptography. Veres One provides the underpinning identifier and cryptography framework that enables issuers to provide credentials to customers.

Wallets

Wallets make it possible for people to securely and privately store digital credentials. Digital wallets may be utilized to receive credentials from Issuers and present them to Verifiers.

Wallets are often cloud-based and work across a variety of devices. They cannot be lost or stolen. Data is portable, which allows the data owner to easily switch from one wallet to another.

Verifiers

Organizations and individuals utilize Verifiers to evaluate the authenticity of digital credentials. Verifiers use advanced cryptography to ensure that digital credentials cannot be easily tampered with or forged.

In some cases, credential Issuers may also be credential Verifiers. For example, a retailer might issue a digital offer and then later verify that offer during a purchase. Alternatively, the Issuer and Verifier may be separate entities, such as when a pharmacy verifies the authenticity of a digital prescription that was issued by a physician.