VCs
Semantic & Data Protocol
Community
Details
License Specification only; reference implementations widely available — SpruceID, walt.id, Veramo, Digital Bazaar libraries, Microsoft Entra Verified ID, Mattr, IDunion, etc.
Dev Status 🏁 Final
Dev Status Detail Released / Mature (W3C Recommendation; v2.0 expected 2025; broad ecosystem adoption)
Owner W3C; Verifiable Credentials Working Group; editors include Manu Sporny, Orie Steele, Dave Longley, others
Governing Body W3C (Recommendation track — Verifiable Credentials Working Group)
Governing Body - List
- World Wide Web Consortium
Country International (W3C)
Start Year 2017
Stack Specification; implementations in most major languages — JavaScript/TypeScript (Veramo, Digital Bazaar, walt.id JS), Rust (SpruceID DIDKit), Java/Kotlin (walt.id, EUDI Wallet libraries), Python, Go
Funding W3C standards process; substantial industry investment in VC infrastructure (EU Digital Identity Wallet, US Department of Homeland Security CHAPI initiatives, etc.); commercial VC platforms (SpruceID, walt.id, Microsoft)
Last Investigated Jul 1, 2026
Semantic & Data Protocol Attributes
Origins Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI); credentialing on the web; emerged from W3C Credentials Community Group; designed to enable cryptographically verifiable claims without phone-home-to-issuer requirements
Database Issuer/holder/verifier maintain their own credential storage; VCs themselves are signed documents stored wherever the holder chooses (wallet apps, cloud wallets, paper/QR codes); no centralized credential database
Query Language N/A — VCs are signed documents; query patterns are application-specific
Data Formats JSON-LD (canonical VC format with Linked Data Proofs / Data Integrity signatures); JSON (compact format); JWT (JSON Web Token-formatted VCs); SD-JWT (Selective Disclosure JWT); CBOR-encoded VCs (mDoc, ISO mDL)
Collaborative Live Editing
Rich Text Editing
Mobile Support Yes — VCs are designed for mobile wallets; EUDI Wallet reference implementations for iOS and Android; many commercial mobile SSI wallets
Web Support Yes (CHAPI, OID4VC, browser-based wallet integrations)
Native Apps
Terms Open standard — W3C Recommendation
Funds N/A (specification itself); broader VC ecosystem has received billions in public and private funding
Based On W3C DIDs (issuer, subject, holder typically DID-identified); JSON-LD; W3C Data Integrity / Linked Data Proofs (cryptographic signing); JWT/SD-JWT (alternative signature formats); earlier SSI research; co-designed with W3C DIDs and DIDComm as part of the W3C SSI Suite
Governing Body - List
- World Wide Web Consortium
Semantic Web Compatibility Full — JSON-LD is the base serialization of the data model; every conformant credential carries an @context, is interpretable as an RDF graph, and uses the media type application/vc+ld+json . Caveat worth recording: v2.0 defines two securing lanes — Data Integrity proofs, which are JSON-LD-native, and JOSE/COSE including SD-JWT, which treats the credential as a JSON payload . Implementations in the JOSE/COSE lane commonly skip JSON-LD expansion, so RDF-level semantics are guaranteed by the data model but are not exercised by every deployed profile
Protocol Maturity / Standardization W3C Recommendation (Mature) — VC Data Model v1.0 (2019); v1.1 (2022); v2.0 expected 2025; co-designed with W3C DIDs and W3C SSI Suite; broad implementation across commercial and government SSI deployments
Vocabulary / Ontology Type Credential container / Attestation meta-vocabulary — defines the structural terms for expressing and verifying claims (VerifiableCredential, VerifiablePresentation, credentialSubject, issuer, validFrom/validUntil, credentialStatus, credentialSchema, evidence, termsOfUse, proof) but deliberately carries no domain semantics; the meaning of a claim is supplied by additional vocabularies imported through @context. VCs are therefore the envelope that narrower credential-type vocabularies populate, including Personhood Credentials and Verifiable Relationship Credentials on this sheet. Core v2 context published at https://www.w3.org/ns/credentials/v2
Usage Pattern Embedded in other protocols — the data model specifies credential structure and semantics, not transport or proof mechanism. Issuance and presentation are carried by separate exchange protocols (OpenID4VC, DIDComm, VC-API), and cryptographic security is supplied by separate securing specifications, either Data Integrity or JOSE/COSE . The model is in turn profiled by narrower credential-type vocabularies that define what a given credential asserts while inheriting the VC envelope — including Personhood Credentials and Verifiable Relationship Credentials on this sheet . Adopted as the credential substrate across education, government identity, and supply-chain ecosystems
Relationships
How this tool connects to other tools and organizations, from relationships reviewed by the OpenHaven data steward. They describe how projects connect, not how good they are.
- Based on
- Hosted at
- World Wide Web Consortium
- Speaks protocol
- Stewarded by
- World Wide Web Consortium
- Basis for
- Conforming implementations
- Affinidi
- Animo
- AnonCreds
- Civic Identity
- Civic.Social
- did:cheqd
- did:ethr
- did:indy
- did:key
- did:peer
- did:scid
- did:web
- did:webvh
- DIDComm
- DIDs
- Dock.io / Truvera
- FedID
- First Person Project / Network
- Flowsta
- GreenCheck
- Holochain
- Human Passport
- Iden3 / Privado ID
- IXO
- KERI
- Keyring
- Meeco
- MyTerms
- NAOMS
- Northern Block / 4sure
- OpenID for Verifiable Credentials (OpenID4VC)
- OpenVTC
- Personhood Credentials (PHCs)
- Portable Communities Protocol
- Real Life Trust Protocol (RLTP)
- Spherity
- SpruceID
- Trust Registry Query Protocol
- Verida
- Verifiable Relationship Credentials (VRCs)
- Walt.id
- ZCAPs
- Protocol spoken by