Reference
Glossary.
Every term used on this site, defined without using another term you would then have to look up.
- Credential
- A digital record issued by an organisation stating something it can confirm about a person — a qualification, a role, a registration. It is signed, so any alteration shows up.
- Issuer
- The organisation that creates a credential. It is responsible for whether the facts in it are correct, and it can withdraw it later.
- Holder
- The person the credential is about. They keep it on their own device and decide each time whether to share it.
- Verifier, or checker
- An organisation that asks someone to prove something and checks the credential they present. It decides which issuers it will accept.
- Wallet
- The application on a person’s device that holds credentials, shows incoming requests and sends a response when the person approves.
- Credential offer
- The link or QR code an issuer gives a person so they can accept a credential into their wallet.
- Presentation
- The act of sharing facts from a credential in response to a request. Only what was asked for and approved is sent.
- Selective disclosure
- Sharing some facts from a credential without the rest — proving a licence is current without also disclosing a date of birth.
- Holder binding
- The mechanism proving a credential belongs to the person presenting it. A private key generated on their device, and never sent anywhere, signs the response.
- Revocation, or withdrawal
- An issuer marking a credential as no longer valid. Checks made afterwards fail. It does not delete the copy on the person’s device.
- Status list
- A signed list an issuer publishes showing which credentials it has withdrawn. A checker reads it during a check, so it does not have to contact the issuer.
- Expiry
- A date set when the credential is issued. Once passed, checks fail without anyone having to act.
- Trust decision
- A checker deciding which issuers it is prepared to accept credentials from. This is the judgement that carries the weight; the cryptography only confirms the credential is genuine.
- Interoperability
- Whether an issuer, a wallet and a checking service can actually work together. It needs a shared credential format, protocol, signing algorithm and status mechanism — supporting the same specification is not sufficient on its own.
- Identity provider
- A system that logs people into services. DiligenceID is not one. It carries proof of a fact into a decision; your sign-in stays separate.
Want it in context instead?
The credential journey explains the same ideas in the order they happen, with an example.