Verifiable Credentials Flavors Explained (Infographic)
Verifiable Credentials (VCs) are a standardized data model with broad expressive capacity (see how VCs work on the right). They can be used by manydifferent industries and contexts. Credentials created for one narrow purpose can be used for another at the discretion of their holder or subject of the

Verifiable Credential

credentials, requiring no technical federation to the originating issuers.

Verifiable
Credential

Verifiable
Presentation

Credential Metadata
Claim(s)Knowledge Proof)-CL. A year ago, JSON-LD ZKP with BBS+ was innovated to bridge the gap between the the most promising formats, JSON-LD with LD
Director, wrote a paper explaining the different formats (https://www.lfph.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Verifiable-Credentials-Flavors-Explained.pdf), based

Summary

Proof(s)No direct integration or third party intermediary
Issueron which we created this infographic to provide a simplified view of why we believe the community should converge on JSON-LD ZKP with BBS+.

JSON - JWTVerifiable Credential(s)TrustProof(s)Signature and ZKP-CL, and reconciled the technical differences between two while managing to retain their key merits. Kaliya Young, CCI’s Ecosystems

Presentation Metadata

HolderVCs were standardized by W3C, an international community that develops open standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web. The VC data model
1.0, published in 2019, offers optionality for credential formats, with the three predominate ones JSON-JWT, JSON-LD with LD Signature, and ZKP(Zero

Verifiable Presentation

Verifier

JSON-LD with LD Signature

ZKP- CL

JSON-LD ZKP with BBS+

Simplicity: Simplest among all

Simplicity: Relatively simpleSimplicity: Most complicated among all

Simplicity: ComplicatedPrivacy Preserving: No- Selective Disclosure: No- Zero Knowledge Proof: No- Need to Reveal Persistent Identifier: Yes

Privacy Preserving: No- Selective Disclosure: No- Zero Knowledge Proof: No- Need to Reveal Persistent Identifier: Yes

Privacy Preserving: Yes- Selective Disclosure: Yes- Zero Knowledge Proof: Yes- Need to Reveal Persistent Identifier: No

Privacy Preserving: Yes- Selective Disclosure: Yes- Zero Knowledge Proof: Not yet- Need to Reveal Persistent Identifier: No

Semantic Disambiguation: No

Semantic Disambiguation: Yes

Semantic Disambiguation: No

Semantic Disambiguation: Yes

Linked Data Context

an Indy Ledger
Linked Data Context
Persistent DID

Verifiable
Credential

Name: Value Pairs
Name: Kaliya
Job: Ecosystems Director(Issued by theissuer)

Persistent DID

Organization: CCI

JWS in a JWT
Entire credential signed
by issuer with its private
key, associated with thepaired public key pair in
DID Document.

@Context: URLs to find definitions

Points to unambiguous
IRI references for terms
in the credential

LINK SECRETCREDENTIAL DEFINITIONSCHEMA DEFINITION@Type: Job

Name: Value Pairs

Name: Value Pairs

Name: Kaliya

LD Signature

Name: Kaliya

Entire credential signed by issuer
with its private key, associatedwith the paired public key pair in
DID Document.

Job: Ecosystems Director
Organization: CCI

Persistent DID

Persistent DID

Verifiable
Presentation@Context: URLs to find definitions

Name: Value Pairs
Name: Kaliya
Job: Ecosystems Director

JWS in a JWT

Job: Ecosystems Director
Organization: CCI

Organization: CCI(Presented to theVerifier)Name: Value Pairs

Signed by the holder with a nonce from the verifier so that it can’tbe replayed. The holder can only present the entire credential as averifiable presentation even if some data attributes are not neededfor the verification. The verifer can choose to (but not necessarilyhave to) expand terms in the credential with the IRI references.

Job: Ecosystems Director
Organization: CCI

Each claim on credential signed by issuer
with its private key, associated with thepaired public key pair in DID Document.

Name: Kaliya
Job: Ecosystems Director

Linked Data Context@Context: URLs to find definitions

CREDENTIAL DEFINITION

Both posted toPoints to unambiguous
IRI references for terms
in the credential@Type; Job
Name: Value Pairs

CL Signature
CL Signature

Organization: CCI

Signed by the holder with a nonce from the verifier so that it
can’t be replayed. The holder can only present the entire
credential as a verifiable presentation even if some data
attributes are not needed for the verification.

BBS+ Signature
BBS+ Signature
BBS+ Signature

Name: Kaliya

LINK SECRETLINK SECRET

Name: Value Pairs

Job: Ecosystems Director

CL Signature
CL Signature
CL Signature

an Indy Ledger@Type: Job

Name: Kaliya@Type; Job

Each claim on credential signed by issuer
with its private key, associated with thepaired public key pair in DID Document.

SCHEMA DEFINITIONLD Signature

Both posted to@Context: URLs to find definitions

Name: Value Pairs

Linked Data Context
Points to unambiguous
IRI references for terms
in the credential

LINK SECRET

Points to unambiguous
IRI references for terms
in the credential

The holder can only present the data attributes in the needed forthe verification instead of the entire credential. The verifier uses
the Credential Definition and Schema Definition from the ledger
and the public keys found in the DID Document of the issuer todo the crytographic calculations needed for verification.

Name: Kaliya

BBS+ Signature

Organization: CCI

BBS+ Signature

The holder can only present the data attributes the needed for theverification instead of the entire credential. The verifer can choose to(but not necessarily have to) expand terms in the credential with theIRI references.