Skip to content
Partisia Docs

What are Verifiable Credentials?

A verifiable credential (VC) is a tamper-evident digital credential that contains claims about a subject — such as a name, age, qualification, or membership status. Each credential is:

  • Issued by a trusted entity (the issuer), digitally signed to prove authenticity
  • Held by the subject in a digital wallet, giving them full control
  • Verified by any third party (the verifier) through cryptographic checks — without contacting the issuer

Real-world analogy

Section titled “Real-world analogy”

Think of a physical driver’s license:

  • The government (issuer) creates and signs it
  • You (holder) carry it in your wallet
  • A bar (verifier) checks it to confirm your age

A verifiable credential is the digital equivalent — but with stronger guarantees. It’s cryptographically signed so it can’t be forged, and you can choose to reveal only specific attributes (e.g., “over 21” without showing your address).

Credential lifecycle

Section titled “Credential lifecycle”
  1. Issuance: The issuer creates the credential, signs it, and sends it to the holder’s wallet
  2. Storage: The holder stores it securely in their digital wallet
  3. Presentation: When needed, the holder creates a verifiable presentation and shares it with a verifier
  4. Verification: The verifier checks the cryptographic signatures against the registry
  5. Revocation (optional): The issuer can revoke the credential by updating the registry

Standards

Section titled “Standards”

Verifiable credentials are defined by the W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model 2.0. Partisia’s implementation is fully standards-compliant and eIDAS 2.0-ready.

Learn more

Section titled “Learn more”