Close to final Credentials CG Mission — need to add phrase on “long-term” credentials

By the end of the call today we had a good discussion and an improved
proposal for mission statement:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kxm6yGnGAVgNTLMYft_cz2zW3c1AE8uSCy4i5A6OhG8/edit?usp=sharing

“The mission of the Credentials Community Group is to explore the creation,
storage, presentation, and verification of credentials. We focus on a
verifiable credential (a set of claims) created by an issuer about a
subject—a person, group, or thing—and seek solutions inclusive of
approaches such as: self-sovereign identity; presentation of proofs by the
bearer; data minimization; and centralized, federated, and decentralized
registry and identity systems. Our tasks include drafting and incubating
Internet specifications for further standardization and prototyping and
testing reference implementations.”


The remaining issue was that I was hoping to incorporate a phrase about
another unique thing about our architecture — the ability to present claims
that are long-lived. For instance, I should be able to present a valid
claim that I was legally married 25 years ago, even if the issuer has
rotated or revoked their keys since. This is possible with proof of
existence and dated key rotation/revocation registries.  It should be
possible for me to prove that I graduated from college, even if colleges
have changed names, merged, etc., name systems and degree changes, for as
long as the claim was not fraudulent.

That, and the bearer instrument side of our work, offers something unique
and compelling about our architecture, and also ties us into the newer
possibilities offered by blockchain systems.

If you would like to discuss this, or other issues with the mission
statement, please reply to this email. If you have ideas on how to specific
change that in the above mission statement, submit the change as a
suggestion to the google doc above.

Thanks!

— Christopher Allen