Verifiable Credential (VC)

A verifiable credential is a digital version of the claims a physical credential carries, such as a driving licence or a diploma, expressed so that anyone can check it cryptographically. It has three roles: an issuer signs it, a holder keeps it, and a verifier checks it. The signature lets the verifier trust the claim without calling back to the issuer, which is what makes the model decentralized.

The data model is a W3C standard. A credential can carry one claim or many, and selective disclosure lets a holder prove a single fact, such as being over 18, without revealing the rest of the document. The credential binds to an identifier the holder controls, usually a decentralized identifier.

In CIAM, verifiable credentials are the unit of reusable, pre-proofed trust. A customer proofed once can present a credential rather than repeating onboarding, and the verifier weights it by the assurance of its issuer. The constraint is ecosystem adoption: a credential is only useful where issuers people trust and verifiers people use both exist.

Sources

• W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model 2.0: https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model-2.0/