The W3C Credentials Community Group

Verifiable Claims and Digital Verification

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CCG Verifiable Credentials for Education Task Force Telecon

Minutes for 2021-07-26

<matt_lisle> fyi there were a couple of folks in the mit zoom
<matt_lisle> i'll pop back in and let 'em know
<phil_barker> phil_barker scribing
Dmitri Zagidulin: Here's how to scribe [scribe assist by Kerri Lemoie]
Kerri Lemoie: Any introductions? [scribe assist by Phil Barker]
Dmitri Zagidulin: Reintroduction. s/w engineering working creds and digital ID, with digital bazaar and MIT DCC, stepping in to some on Kim's roles [scribe assist by Phil Barker]
Kerri Lemoie: Announcement OSN21 summit on rich skill descriptors this week [scribe assist by Phil Barker]

Topic: Open Badges 3.0 Proposal Update

<phil_barker> ... presentation last week to IMS. Will be meeting with IMS Open Badges & IMS CLR teams. More updates in couple of weeks

Topic: Complex Credentials Breakout Group

<phil_barker> ... Marty to give update on complex credentials work.
<phil_barker> Marty Reed: Phil Long will do intro
<phil_barker> ... Randa have been work on more complex credentials
Phil Barker: Phil_L: problem statement: represent complexity of real-world credentials, in practical, pragmatic way
<phil_barker> ... worked from examples, tried to break them down
Phil Barker is scribing.
... looked at what needs to be signed? where do they need to "live"? how to preserve learner/worker agency? how to respect expectations of issuer?
... two examples: licensure & EU Diploma Supplement
... for diploma supplements existing solution could be CLR with OCP
Marty Reed: CLR more complex than Badge because has multiple layers. Has concept of acheivement, which in Diploma Supplement is diploma itself.
... also includes Alignments to frameworks, Assertions, Evidence
... diagram of how to map content of diploma supplement & JSON-LD strawman example
... Assertions = Claims, i.e. that Diploma has been awarded
... Open Credential Publisher shows this information as acheivement and assertions, from multiple institutions
Nate Otto: What use cases for bundling assertions that are independently verifiable? What does bundling/unbudnling do with respect to cryptographic signing?
<nate_otto_(@ottonomy)_badgr/csky> Oh you got me already thx
Marty Reed: We package all assertions as a single credentials so that don't have to provide new definition everytime number of assertions are changed.
Nate Otto: So cannot embed multiple assertiosn into one credetnial
Phil_L: no, you can, but forcing factor is economics of cost and fees of blockchain environment.
... you can sign individual components but it gets really large
<dmitri_zagidulin> @Phil_L - I can take over at any point
Marty Reed: BBS+(?) allows signing of whole and individual, but haven't seen that yet. Hasn't been flesged out
@Dmitri, over to you
Dmitri Zagidulin is scribing.
Dmitri Zagidulin is scribing.
Kerri Lemoie: Can you compare your implementation to how LERs are implemented?
... we talked about LERs in the spring a bit, but not everyone is familiar
Marty Reed: So, the entire assertion is signed, with LERs
... what we've done is AND'd it -- both the CLR is signed, AND individual assertions are signed
... and it's up to the holder wallet to decide how those assertions are sent to the verifier
... if the OCP wants to repackage assertions, then it's actually a self-published assertion/credential
Nate_Otto_(@ottonomy)_Badgr/CSky: you had an interesting point about BBS+
... about selective disclosure of individual assertions
Dmitri Zagidulin is scribing.
... doesn't that require all assertions to be issued by the same issuer?
... is a complex credential a bundle of creds from multiple issuers?
... or can it have multiple issuers?
Marty Reed: That's still to be defined
... this diploma use case was nice in that it has a single issuer.
Marty Reed: My hope, especially from perspective of licensure
... is that we can use BBS+
... there's always the last mile problem -- how does the verifier want that dat?
... for example, as Orie mentions, you /always/ present it as a Verifiable Presentation (never a standalone VC)_
... so, lots to be learned / figured out still
... one thing to mention - in other implementations, we have samples of an Open Badge as an assertion
... and so, the alignment of CLR and OB should align here, in VC Edu work
Phil_L_(P1): in the EU, given the Bologna Accord, a transcript can have multiple issuers
... so this use case has to be able to properly reflect that
... part of the challenge here is that the CLR as a framework doesn't have the concept of a Presentation like VC/VP does
... so, one of our challenges is to figure out how (or whether) we can have a Presentation concept. (which is important, particularly in terms of the agency of the Holder)
... so, we need to figure out how to bring it together
Ozgur_Y: a key component of the CLR is the Association, which defines rel'ship between Achievements
... was that included in the model?
Marty Reed: No, but that's a good point
Ozgur_Y: I think that last week we discussed how a single credential can be represented, in the Open Badges WG. Here, we're trying to represent multiple credentials
... so, we should try to align the two, see how we can represent multiple VCs in the same structure
... so then, the only component missing would be Associations
Dmitri Zagidulin: That's exactly what a Verifiable Presentation is for - to bundle multiple VCs in one package
Phil Barker: One way of dealing with the diploma use case, is that -- it is from a single issuer (whoever issued the Diploma Supplement)
... but it also contains info from other issuers
... we can represent the trust / attendance relationships with simple VCs
... so, one approach to multiple issuers is to ask - are they actually issuers of the credential, or do they supplement or provide additional information? (without issuing it)
Marty Reed: Each assertion, in this context, is its own VC.
... and then the entire package is a VC as well. that adds bulk / complexity, we recognize that
... but it also solves these multiple problems
Kerri Lemoie: There's a concept, with CLRs, of Issuer, vs Publisher. Can you describe the difference?
Ozgur_Y: The Issuer is basically to create the credential. The Publisher is just displaying it / providing the environment to present it online
Kerri Lemoie: So, for a VC version of a CLR, would you still have both a Publisher and Issuer roles?
Ozgur_Y: Yes, you'd need both
... for instance, Aphis (?) is a publisher software
... as a learner, I receive credentials from multiple issuers
... and they've all been gathered and moved to a specific environment where it's now published
... so I can display all the credentials I've gathered in my lifetime
Phil_L_(P1): I think one of the things to note here - in some sense, it's the way in which the concept of the Presentation has been interpreted, for the CLR
... because anything that is assembled (other than directly from the issuer), in the CLR world, is a Self-Published Credential
... in the context of a Presentation, the assembly of those different things is the work of the Holder and their wallet. They obviously retain the issuer signatures, to guarantee authenticity
... in my view, it's kind of enabling the notion of presentations without necessarily the full notion of a wallet
... so it may be just a historical decision
... but there's a clarity, in the use of a VP, that is achieved by emerging wallet, so we may want to leverage
Phil_L_(P1): the VP concept is interesting, I just haven't seen examples of it, so we just went without it in the moment
... but I'm following with interest the work of the VC HTTP API group, to see how the VP is interpreted from the Verifier viewpoint
... so, we want to meet the market where it's at, and then iterate forward
Kerri Lemoie: So what do you think is the next step, wrt complex credentials and VCs?
Marty Reed: From a WG standpoint, we want to explore more the relationship between VC and VP
... my hope is that we continue with the Diploma Supplement usecase
... because it's such a substantial use case, it brings international perspective (to what some have seen as a very US-centric field)
... so, the hope there is that - we have this perfect UC from an international perspective, and if we implement it, it'll fulfill the US use case too
... we've had a lot of spirited debate around the multiple issuer problem of a complex credential. Also, the economics (of accumulator-based ledgers like Indy) or complex credentials, should not be dismissed
Phil_L_(P1): The work that you and Nate have done, in terms of thinking through the credential, in the context of a single-assertion Badge,
... and how that might be leveraged as a core element of a multiple assertion environment, is something we should take into equal account
... it gives a good starting point for a majority of use cases
... and then we can also reconcile it with multi-issuer use cases
Kerri Lemoie: Ack: Ozgur_Y
Ozgur_Y: I'd like to support Phil's idea. It's a natural path, to finalize a single credential, and then a multiple credential bundle can just be based on that structure
... so, have a single pathway to adoption
... once you handle the multiple credential use case, adding the Association notion will unite the two structures together
Marty Reed: I also want to third that support for the work that Concentric Sky, Nate, Kerri, have done with that structure
... the workstreams inform each other well
... there's 43 million badges issues. we have 19 million more complex credentials in our system, so there's definitely a market need
... for both
... but both of them aligning well, and informing each other, is really the way to go
Kerri Lemoie: Thank you, Marty, Phil, and everybody for all your questions. appreciated
... I was wondering if folks have ideas for the next few calls' topics to be
... we don't have anything queued up just yet. so, any requests?
... feel free to put it in the chat, or email me
<marty_reed> revisit the use cases list
<kerri_lemoie> klemoie@concentricsky.com
... also, we may want to change the meeting time. (not until mid- or end of August)
... anybody else have other questions/items for today?
Marty Reed: When I first joined this VC Edu WG, Kim's work for defining use cases -- I think revisiting that would be super valuable
<nate_otto_(@ottonomy)_badgr/csky> Thanks for the presentation today, Marty and Phil. +1 to understanding what the use cases are for complex credentials, specifically in terms of consumption-side use cases.
... the entire group has done some work on this, and developed some examplars, so, revisiting would be very valluable
Kerri Lemoie: That would be great, I like that idea
Kerri Lemoie: To submit a use case, either follow the GitHub issue template, or I have a Google Form somewhere, that makes it even easier
... so, next week, we'll revisit those use cases
Phil_L_(P1): I think the UC notion is really important. and it's useful, in that context, to think about super-groups of Use Cases as types
... since one of our challenges is providing rationales to institutions, for other things than a single-issuer blob
Kerri Lemoie: Thank you, all!
<colin_reynolds,_learning_economy> Thanks Kerri!