What does "chained credential" mean? (was: Re: [PROPOSED WORK ITEM] Verifiable Issuers and Verifiers)

On Sat, Dec 17, 2022 at 5:13 PM Steve Capell <steve.capell@gmail.com> wrote:
> Manu - please don’t take this the wrong way ... But I suspect they come from a technology perspective and haven’t had enough exposure to real world business use cases, particularly in the supply chain domain.

Steve, our company was the technical lead for the US Customs and
Border Protection work on the use of Verifiable Credentials and
Decentralized Identifiers, and the application to supply chain use
cases, namely, NAFTA/CAFTA Proof of Origin certificates:

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2019-Oct/Final-NAFTA-CAFTA-Report.pdf

... and Intellectual Property Licensing for the import of goods into the US:

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2020-Mar/IPR%20POC%20Report%20-%20Final%20V2.pdf

We started that work in 2018 and it is among the first applications of
VCs and DIDs to global supply chains. This work led to congressional
testimony in the US that established the use of these technologies for
future US Customs and Border Protection systems:

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115hhrg30320/html/CHRG-115hhrg30320.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7aCUM2RfJA&t=2096s

As you can imagine, we didn't stop there and today have active, paying
customers in the supply chain space (both physical goods and financial
supply chain). That work that US CBP is performing is now led by the
very capable Transmute, Mesur.io, and Mavennet organizations in the
Traceability work item in CCG.

I hope that helps clarify that my personal involvement isn't driven by
academic or technological purity. I don't know as much about supply
chains as you do, or Orie, MikeP, or Mahmoud for that matter, of that
I'm certain, but I'm not a baby, either. :P

> This could go on and on.  But I’ll say that I am still very firmly convinced that chains are real and important on the real world and that only practical way to represent them in the digital world is linked credentials

Ah! We're almost completely talking past each other now. All of the
projects above "linked credentials" together so you could follow a
chain to some information, and it did so in a privacy preserving way
(including keeping corporate secrets private). This has been possible
with VCs since their inception, and is the basis for the VC data model
(JSON-LD / RDF has been doing this for decades). We're actively trying
to standardize at least one mechanism to do this now (since folks seem
to want the feature standardized):

https://github.com/w3c/vc-data-model/issues/831

Before I respond to your broader points (and I'm actively reading the
use cases you linked to now), can you please provide your definition
for "chained credential" and "linked credential"? I expect it'll
largely modify my response to your points.

-- manu

-- 
Manu Sporny - https://www.linkedin.com/in/manusporny/
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
News: Digital Bazaar Announces New Case Studies (2021)
https://www.digitalbazaar.com/

Received on Sunday, 18 December 2022 17:39:37 UTC