LibraryData and agents2025Design paperCorpus record
Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0
Verifiable credentials. W3C.
An issuer signs a set of claims about a subject. A holder later presents those claims, or a derivation, to a verifier. The verifier checks the issuer's signature, not a central account.
A reading of the public document. Not a copy of it, and not a claim about a later network that reused the name.
A credential pitch that stores the passport scan on a public chain has left this model.
- Evidence
- Primary paper
- Re-measured
- No
- Assumptions
- 3
- Records linked
- 1
Code
Source, repository, and what is actually hosted
- W3C Recommendationhttps://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model-2.0/
- The source URL is not a GitHub repository. No code remote is invented.
- Full text is not mirrored. Public availability is not a licence to copy the file onto this site.
- Add to a reading list
01 Claim ledger
What the paper is allowed to say
Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.
Claim 01 · Paper model
The defect
Showing a passport to prove you are over 18 shows the passport. The check needed one bit.
Claim 02 · Paper model
The rule
An issuer signs a set of claims about a subject. A holder later presents those claims, or a derivation, to a verifier. The verifier checks the issuer's signature, not a central account.
Claim 03 · Paper model
How it is put together
Issuer, holder and verifier are different roles. The claim is signed. Presentation can be a subset. The model allows selective disclosure. It does not force one cryptographic scheme.
Claim 04 · Paper model
Where the claim stops
The data model is not a blockchain.
02 Three cuts
Observation, model, falsifier
A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.
01 The defect
Observation
What the study says
Showing a passport to prove you are over 18 shows the passport. The check needed one bit.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Who is the issuer, and where is their key?
02 The rule
Observation
What the study says
An issuer signs a set of claims about a subject. A holder later presents those claims, or a derivation, to a verifier. The verifier checks the issuer's signature, not a central account.
Model
What has to hold
It does not make the claim true. It makes the issuer's signature checkable.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Who is the issuer, and where is their key?
03 How it is put together
Observation
What the study says
Issuer, holder and verifier are different roles. The claim is signed. Presentation can be a subset. The model allows selective disclosure. It does not force one cryptographic scheme.
Model
What has to hold
It does not make the claim true. It makes the issuer's signature checkable.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Who is the issuer, and where is their key?
04 Where the claim stops
Falsifier
What would retire it
Who is the issuer, and where is their key?
03 Sequence
One action, as an operating tape
- 01An issuer signs a credential.
- 02The holder stores it.
- 03A verifier checks the signature, the issuer's key, and any revocation status the scheme defines.
- 04Who is the issuer, and where is their key?
04 Load-bearing
The argument, and where a pitch drops it
Why it is still on the desk
The cut
A credential pitch that stores the passport scan on a public chain has left this model.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
The data model is not a blockchain.
After the text
The cut
Implementations differ on signatures and revocation. The roles are the standard.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
Revocation is optional unless the profile requires it.
05 Register
What has to be true
Data · Not re-measured
The data model is not a blockchain.
Cryptography · Not re-measured
It does not make the claim true. It makes the issuer's signature checkable.
Model · Not re-measured
Revocation is optional unless the profile requires it.
06 Divergence
What happened after the paper
Implementations differ on signatures and revocation. The roles are the standard.
A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.
07 Pre-mortem
What to check before you use the idea
- 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.
08 Anatomy
The paper, in the order a builder needs
The problem it names
Showing a passport to prove you are over 18 shows the passport. The check needed one bit.
What the design proposes
- Issuer, holder and verifier are different roles.
- The claim is signed.
- Presentation can be a subset. The model allows selective disclosure. It does not force one cryptographic scheme.
How the mechanism is specified
- An issuer signs a credential.
- The holder stores it.
- A verifier checks the signature, the issuer's key, and any revocation status the scheme defines.
What this page does not treat as proven
- The data model is not a blockchain.
- It does not make the claim true. It makes the issuer's signature checkable.
- Revocation is optional unless the profile requires it.
Why the desk still reads it
A credential pitch that stores the passport scan on a public chain has left this model.
09 Lexicon
Terms, opened into the record
- Issuer
- The party who signs the claims.
- Holder
- The party who keeps the credential and presents it.
10 Repository
Every linked record on this page
Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.
Concepts
This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.
Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.