Re: Requirements for PDF as container for VC's

Kostas, hi -

We spoke recently about this and I'm following the thread to see what 
the community thinks.  Happy that you're getting lots of input.

I thought you may want to review my recent article "Evaluating 
Decentralised Identity Projects <https://wmclaxton.medium.com/>".  It's 
a sort of reviewer's guide for decentralised identity apps.  In 
particular, I would draw your attention to the point: "Have you 
separated layout from the rendering application, so that 3rd-parties 
(including verifiers) can render your certs?"  I intend to write a 
follow up about presentation layer and mention PDF encapsulation as an 
alternative, but one I am not much in favor of, for the reasons we 
discussed.

/PS - For anyone else reading this thread, I was a PDF evangelist back 
in the early days of v4 and v5.  I am familiar with the encapsulation 
methods and indeed used them for a National Archives project in Singapore.//
/
Regards, Bill Claxton (williamc@itr8.com <mailto:williamc@itr8.com>)
Facebook, Skype, MSN, Yahoo, Twitter, Flickr or Gmail: wmclaxton
Voice, Text or Whatsapp: +65-9012-4327

On 11/8/2020 5:17 PM, Kostas Karasavvas wrote:
> Hi Leonard,
>
> Thanks for initiating this. I have been thinking of this as well.
>
> On Sun, Nov 8, 2020 at 3:23 AM Leonard Rosenthol <lrosenth@adobe.com 
> <mailto:lrosenth@adobe.com>> wrote:
>
>     Kicking off some discussions here – I’d like to start by putting
>     down what I think are some “primary” requirements for the use of
>     PDF in this context.  Am I missing anything?  Do you disagree with
>     any of these?   Feedback welcome!!
>
>     *## Requirements*
>
>     -Shall store the VC in native JSON-LD (w/optional compression)
>
>     -VC should be in an easily accessible location (for both reading &
>     writing)
>
>
> Agree. And JSON-LD is what we intend to use. There could also be a 
> 'serialization/type' option to specify the serialization to 
> accommodate other use cases (XML? CBOR-LD?), if need be.
>
>     -Should require no language changes to PDF (except "metadata"-like
>     values)
>
>     -implies compatibility with both PDF 1.7 and 2.0
>
>
> Agree. I assume that PDF 1.7 implies compatibility with older versions 
> as well?
>
>     -Shall be usable in conjunction with standard PDF
>     Signing/Certification
>
>
> Makes sense. I have questions here wrt the PDF spec and how signing is 
> happening (the 'hole' in the file approach) but these are for later.
>
> Regards,
> Kostas
>
>     Leonard
>
>
>
> -- 
> Konstantinos A. Karasavvas
> Software Architect, Blockchain Engineer, Researcher, Educator
> https://twitter.com/kkarasavvas <https://twitter.com/kkarasavvas>