Re: [EXT] Re: [AGENDA] VC API Work Item - Tuesday, November 12th 2024

Manu, VERY much appreciated (from someone who unfortunately can’t attend these meetings).

Your explanation is also very understandable given that at the ToIP Foundation we’ve had many of those discussions around the composition of the ToIP stack (which is protocols top to bottom like the TCP/IP stack).

Again, thanks for taking the time to explain this. You are a superb technical communicator.

=Drummond

From: Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com>
Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2024 at 4:15 PM
To: Drummond Reed <Drummond.Reed@gendigital.com>
Cc: W3C Credentials CG <public-credentials@w3.org>
Subject: [EXT] Re: [AGENDA] VC API Work Item - Tuesday, November 12th 2024
On Mon, Nov 11, 2024 at 8:05 PM Drummond Reed
<Drummond.Reed@gendigital.com> wrote:
> I’m not active in the VC API WG, but I monitor the mailing list. I note the agenda item about renaming the VC API to the “VC Protocol”. There’s quite a difference between an API and a protocol. Is there any documentation you can share about this potential evolution?

No documentation presently, the agenda item was meant more as a start
to a discussion.

No decision was made and a decision is unlikely to be made for many
months. For those that don't know, one of the things we're struggling
with is that there are components of the VC API spec (like the
messages involved in an exchange) that are being reused in other
areas. There is overlap between the VC API spec, the VP Request spec,
and the VC over Wireless (NFC and Bluetooth) specs. The re-used bits
could be viewed as "the VC Protocol"... just like TCP is run over IP
(TCP/IP), one could view it as VCP/NFC (Verifiable Credential Protocol
over NFC) or VCP/HTTP (Verifiable Credential Protocol over HTTP --
which is what the VC API is today).

Ultimately, though, there was no consensus at present to change the
name because of other complexities (like, you can run OID4VCI/OID4VP
over VC API over HTTP, which is how OpenCred works) or just pure VP
Request and VPs over browser internals (which is how CHAPI and Digital
Credentials API could work). We even talked about DIDComm and how it
fits into all of this today (you can upgrade to DIDComm over VC API,
for example).

None of this stuff really affects how the technical bits work, but it
does affect how we communicate what each layer is doing to other
people and people are still a bit confused as to what exactly VC API
is... at present: it's a Verifiable Credential Lifecycle Management
API which includes back-end issuing/verification/status management
(within the same trust boundary) as  well as verifiable credential
workflows and exchanges (which go across trust boundaries).

I know that's more than you asked for, Drummond, and it's not a clean
answer (because we don't have one right now), but I hope that helps
explain the thing we're trying to puzzle through right now.

The recording of the discussion is here if anyone wants to really dig
in on what was discussed (starts at 21:30 and goes through 47:30).

https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmeet.w3c-ccg.org%2Farchives%2Fw3c-ccg-vcapi-2024-11-12.mp4&data=05%7C02%7CDrummond.Reed%40gendigital.com%7C105ee1a54b2145fd21a908dd037846bc%7C94986b1d466f4fc0ab4b5c725603deab%7C0%7C0%7C638670537326884401%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Q7KmajmlaaGCMGqo2BDC1MB35nxlDLbSR%2BLEjxO0dGc%3D&reserved=0<https://meet.w3c-ccg.org/archives/w3c-ccg-vcapi-2024-11-12.mp4>

-- manu

--
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Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
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