Digital Credentials Consortium
Overview

Digital Credentials Consortium (DCC)
VISION
Create an education landscape that increases learner agency and promotes
more equitable learning and career pathways

MISSION
Create a trusted, distributed, and shared infrastructure that is thestandard for issuing, storing, displaying, and verifying digital credentials

Guiding Principles | Values
Learners - Commitment to Learner Agency and participation● Learners retain primary control over their credentials
Issuers - Commitment to Issuer Control of the design and content of thecredential● Issuers control to whom they issue credentials, the particular achievementthat the credential represents, and which credential options are available tothe learner
Trust - Commitment to Open Processes, Open Standards, Open Source Software● Credentials can be verified without consulting original issuer

12 Founding Members
Delft University of Technology (Netherlands)
Georgia Institute of Technology (USA)Harvard University (USA)
Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam (Germany)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)McMaster University (Canada)
Tecnológico De Monterrey (Mexico)
Technical University of Munich (Germany)
University of California, Berkeley (USA)
University of California, Irvine (USA)
University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy)
University of Toronto (Canada)
White paper: bit.ly/DCC-whitepaper
Barriers to Adoption (report): bit.ly/DCCLastMile

Core Team
Philipp Schmidt | PI, Research Scientist
Brandon Muramatsu | Project Manager, Associate Dir. of Special Projects
Kerri Lemoie, PhD | Director of Technology
Dmitri Zagidulin | Lead Architect
James Chartrand | Engineer
Gillian Walsh | Program Coordinator+ Engineering Contractors
Christopher Capozzola | Senior Associate Dean, MIT Open Learning
Krishna Rajagopal | Chair of DCC Leadership Council, Professor of Physics

Main Activities●●●●Advance Open Standards○ Chair W3C Verifiable Credentials for Education (W3C VC-EDU)○ Leadership at W3C Credentials Community Group (W3C CCG)
○ Collaboration with education & workforce standards 1EdTech (IMS Global):■ Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR)■ Open Badges v3○ Connected to international efforts (e.g., EU, EBSI, Europass)
Develop Software & Libraries: https://github.com/digitalcredentials
DCC members build and launch Pilots and Solutions○ DCC provides essential services (registries, etc.)○ Technical Working Group supports pilots, and also coordinates research onvarious aspects of implementing digital credentials solutions in higher ed context
Provide Advice, Analysis/Research, and Support to members and ecosystem

Interoperability Through Open Standards●●●W3C VC-EDU Task Force○ Documented 50+ uses cases for VCs○ Promote activity, interoperability, understanding○ Sandbox for VC development:■ Issuer control of credential display■ Verifiable links to assets, endorsements, other credentials
W3C CCG○ Verifiable Credentials 2.0○ Secure Storage Task Force○ VC-API Task Force○ Trust Registries
Collaboration with education & workforce standards○ Open Badges v3○ Comprehensive Learner Record

Software Libraries & Support●●●●

Aligned with the core standards
Community driven
MIT License
Documentation and support

Verifiable Credentials Ecosystem
College / University

Learner

Employer /Graduate School
DCC Credential
Tamper-evident
credential where theauthorship can be
cryptographicallyverified, that meetsthe technical andpolicy specifications
adopted by the DCC.

National Organization / DCC

Use Cases in Higher Education
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Student ID & Access Credentials
Enrollment
Diploma
GPA
Transcript
Certificates
Licenses
Membership
Micro-credentials

Issuers●●●●Institutions (formal, informal, non-formal)
Employers
Certification Bodies
Peers

Using digital credential platforms & LMSes

Verifiable Credentials Ecosystem
College / University
Sign &Verify

Learner

Employer /Graduate School
DCC Credential
Tamper-evident
credential where theauthorship can be
cryptographicallyverified, that meetsthe technical andpolicy specifications
adopted by the DCC.

National Organization / DCC

Verifiable Credentials Ecosystem
College / University
Sign &Verify

Learner

Learner
Credential
WalletNational Organization / DCC

Employer /Graduate School
DCC Credential
Tamper-evident
credential where theauthorship can be
cryptographicallyverified, that meetsthe technical andpolicy specifications
adopted by the DCC.

Verifiable Credentials Ecosystem
College / University
Sign &
VerifyLearner

Learner
Credential
WalletNational Organization / DCC

Employer /Graduate School
VerifierPlus

DCC Credential
Tamper-evident
credential where theauthorship can be
cryptographicallyverified, that meetsthe technical andpolicy specifications
adopted by the DCC.

Verifiable Credentials Ecosystem
College / University
Sign &
VerifyLearner

Learner
Credential
Wallet

DCC
Registries

National Organization / DCC

Employer /Graduate School
VerifierPlus

DCC Credential
Tamper-evident
credential where theauthorship can be
cryptographicallyverified, that meetsthe technical andpolicy specifications
adopted by the DCC.

Sign and Verify
sign-and-verify is an open source headless API server (TypeScript +Express.js), Dockerized for deployment convenience, implementing the W3C
CCG Verifiable Credentials API spec:●●●

Issue Verifiable Credentials endpoint. Low-level, backend service(clients POST an unsigned credential, and a signed VC is returned).
Verify endpoints (for verifying Verifiable Credentials and VerifiablePresentations).
an Exchange endpoint for complex and iterative verifiable credential
issuance and renewal.

About Learner Credential Wallet●●●●

Published to Apple App Store and Google Play StoreMIT Licensed open source
Supports DCC values: learner control, open standards
Key features
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Passphrase to secure wallet, biometric support
Standards compliant: W3C Verifiable Credentials, Open Badges v3; VC-API
Add via QR code, deep link from email, web page or LTI module
Authenticate user before issue via OIDC call to institution Identity Provider,bearer token, SAML 2 (in progress, expected within the next month)
Share credential via file, public web link, shortcut to LinkedIn
Multiple user profiles each with distinct identifiers

Example from email to student, simulated authentication with IdPRevocation
Status List 2021: https://w3c-ccg.github.io/vc-status-list-2021/

Learner Credential Wallet Authentication●●●●

Oauth2
Bearer token
OIDC
SAML2 (coming soon)

Authentication Challenges●●●

Every wallet needs to implement multiple authentication methods
Learners may have multiple wallets or switch wallets
Has proven difficult for issuers to configure their IdP within the wallet