W3C Verifiable Credentials
The technology that makes a digital credential as trustworthy as a notarized document — and as portable as a photo on your phone.
The three-actor model
with its keys
in their wallet
without calling anyone
Verifiable Credentials is the W3C standard (the consortium that standardizes the web) for signed digital credentials. The key idea: the verifier doesn't depend on the issuer to confirm authenticity — the math of the signature does it, in seconds, without exposing extra data.
The issuer's identity: did:web
Each institution on VeriCert gets its own did:web decentralized identifier, anchored to its name (and to its own domain on higher plans). Its cryptographic keys are generated in isolation and stored encrypted: no one else — not even another institution on the platform — can sign in its name. That's why we say VeriCert is infrastructure: the issuer is you.
What a verifiable credential guarantees
- Authenticity — it was really signed by the institution that claims to have issued it
- Integrity — not a single character changed since issuance (altering the ID number breaks the signature)
- Live status — valid or revoked, checkable in the moment
- Portability — the holder carries it in Apple/Google Wallet or their Skills Passport and presents it wherever needed
And in practice
An employer receives a résumé with a VeriCert credential: they scan the QR or paste the link into the verifier and in two seconds know it's authentic, intact and valid. A student changes universities: their Open Badges 3.0 credential imports into any wallet or platform compatible with the standard. No phone calls, no apostilles, no waiting for paperwork.
Create my institution's issuer identity See a live verifiable credential