Technologies are adopted and mainstreamed when there is a common, global standard to build with.There have been numerous success stories of this approach in the past – HTTPS, TCP/IP (OSI stack), SMTP – and many others. These ‘protocols’ established the basic groundwork over which others could innovate. This also leads to interoperability – the ability of several solutions to co-exist. For example, one could use different email providers and still communicate with each other (using SMTP).
On the other hand, we have examples of ‘closed-loop’ solutions that are not interoperable and create in-efficiencies – many packaged software solutions fall in this category.
Digital Credentials have evolved through multiple iterations with many solutions in the past of the ‘closed-loop’, single-vendor variety. However, W3C (the official standards making authority of the Web) has worked hard on a global standard for digital credentials – now called verifiable credentials (VC).
In its latest iteration, VC are now based on a standard which is global in nature. Anyone can develop a W3C-compliant solution which should be interoperable with a similar solution from another provider. Moreover, since W3C owns this standard, it is not locked up in a “membership-only” type model.
This is exciting news as it opens up the opportunities to offer VC’s on a global scale. There are also providers of open-source solutions that make ramp up to VC’s more affordable.
educerts is pleased to offer W3C compliant VC’s for our customers. Please contact us to know more.