The Open Badges 3.0 standard
1EdTech's international standard for digital learning credentials — and why version 3.0 changes the game.
What Open Badges is
Open Badges is the world's most adopted standard for digital badges and micro-credentials, maintained by 1EdTech (formerly IMS Global). It defines what information a credential carries — who issues it, who receives it, what achievement it represents, with what criteria and evidence — so any compatible platform can read it.
What changes in version 3.0
Version 3.0 rebuilds the standard on W3C Verifiable Credentials: the credential stops being an image with metadata and becomes a cryptographically signed, portable document. That enables:
- Verification without intermediaries: the signature is checked mathematically, without calling the issuer.
- Wallets: holders keep their credential on their phone and present it whenever they want.
- Issuer identity with DIDs (decentralized identifiers) — in VeriCert, one did:web per institution.
- Verifiable revocation: the status (valid/revoked) is checked live.
What an OB 3.0 credential includes in VeriCert
- Achievement with all 31 official types (Course, Diploma, Certification, MicroCredential, Membership…)
- Narrative criteria and signed evidence
- Skills aligned to frameworks (ESCO, national frameworks) with reference URLs
- Validity (validUntil), CPD hours (creditsAvailable), field of study and specialization
- Holder identity — in ID credentials: photo and student number as a signed IdentityObject
- Baked badge: the downloadable PNG carries the signed credential embedded in the file itself
Compliance in VeriCert
Every credential is issued with a double signature: Data Integrity (eddsa-rdfc-2022) and VC-JWT (RS256), the standard's two proof formats — compatible with 1EdTech's official validator and the wallet ecosystem. Check it yourself: open a demo credential and watch both verifications live, or paste any credential into the public verifier.
Issue my first OB 3.0 credential Next resource: W3C Verifiable Credentials