By name: "w3c-vcdm-terminology" description: "Use when looking up W3C VCDM 2.0 terminology or understanding key term definitions. Covers core vocabulary used across the specification." sections: - "2. Terminology"
2. Terminology
The following terms are used to describe concepts in this specification.
claim
An assertion made about a subject.
credential
A set of one or more claims made by an issuer. The claims in a credential can be about different subjects. The definition of credential used in this specification differs from, NIST's definitions of credential.
decentralized identifier
A portable URL-based identifier, also known as a DID,
is associated with an entity. These identifiers are most often used in a
verifiable credential and are associated with subjects such that a
verifiable credential can be easily ported from one
credential repository to another without reissuing the credential.
An example of a DID is did:example:123456abcdef. See the
Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0 specification for further details.
default graph
The graph containing all claims that are not explicitly part of a named graph.
entity
Anything that can be referenced in statements as an abstract or concrete noun. Entities include but are not limited to people, organizations, physical things, documents, abstract concepts, fictional characters, and arbitrary text. Any entity might perform roles in the ecosystem, if it can do so. Note that some entities fundamentally cannot take actions, for example, the string "abc" cannot issue credentials.
graph
A set of claims, forming a network of information composed of subjects and their relationship to other subjects or data. Each claim is part of a graph; either explicit in the case of named graphs, or implicit for the default graph.
holder
A role an entity might perform by possessing one or more verifiable credentials and generating verifiable presentations from them. A holder is often, but not always, a subject of the verifiable credentials they are holding. Holders store their credentials in credential repositories.
issuer
A role an entity can perform by asserting claims about one or more subjects, creating a verifiable credential from these claims, and transmitting the verifiable credential to a holder.
named graph
A graph associated with specific properties, such as
verifiableCredential. These properties
result in separate graphs that contain all claims defined in the
corresponding JSON objects.
presentation
Data derived from one or more verifiable credentials issued by one or more issuers that is shared with a specific verifier.
credential repository
Software, such as a file system, storage vault, or personal verifiable credential wallet, that stores and protects access to holders' verifiable credentials.
selective disclosure
The ability of a holder to make fine-grained decisions about what information to share.
unlinkable disclosure
A type of selective disclosure where presentations cannot be correlated between verifiers.
subject
A thing about which claims are made.
validation
The assurance that a claim from a specific issuer satisfies the business requirements of a verifier for a particular use. This specification defines how verifiers verify verifiable credentials and verifiable presentations. It also specifies that verifiers validate claims in verifiable credentials before relying on them. However, the means for such validation vary widely and are outside the scope of this specification. Verifiers trust certain issuers for certain claims and apply their own rules to determine which claims in which credentials are suitable for use by their systems.
verifiable credential
A tamper-evident credential whose authorship can be cryptographically verified. Verifiable credentials can be used to build verifiable presentations, which can also be cryptographically verifiable.
verifiable data registry
A role a system might perform by mediating the creation and verification of identifiers, verification material, and other relevant data, such as verifiable credential schemas, revocation registries, and so on, which might require using verifiable credentials. Some configurations might require correlatable identifiers for subjects. Some registries, such as ones for UUIDs and verification material, might act as namespaces for identifiers.
verifiable presentation
A tamper-evident presentation of information encoded in such a way that authorship of the data can be trusted after a process of cryptographic verification. Certain types of verifiable presentations might contain data that is synthesized from, but does not contain, the original verifiable credentials (for example, zero-knowledge proofs).
verification
The evaluation of whether a verifiable credential or verifiable presentation is an authentic and current statement of the issuer or presenter, respectively. This includes checking that the credential or presentation conforms to the specification, the securing mechanism is satisfied, and, if present, the status check succeeds. Verification of a credential does not imply evaluation of the truth of claims encoded in the credential.
verifier
A role an entity performs by receiving one or more verifiable credentials, optionally inside a verifiable presentation for processing. Other specifications might refer to this concept as a relying party.
verification material
Information that is used to verify the security of cryptographically protected information. For example, a cryptographic public key is used to verify a digital signature associated with a verifiable credential.
URL
A Uniform Resource Locator, as defined by the URL Standard. URLs can be dereferenced to result in a resource, such as a document. The rules for dereferencing, or fetching, a URL are defined by the URL scheme. This specification does not use the term URI or IRI because those terms have been deemed to be confusing to Web developers.