RE: VCs at GS1

Thank you Phil for this thorough analysis. Just wanted to quickly chime in to say progress is being made in some sticky areas that you referred to.

*Navigating / Maturing the DID Method Landscape*

Last year DIF launched 2 efforts to help with navigating / maturing the DID Method landscape, in collaboration with this group and others. Those include:

* *DID Methods WG*

* Scope : Create specifications to standardize an initial set of commonly used DID methods and develop strategies for collaborative, scalable, self-help standardization of DID methods more broadly.

* Joint Participation : We launched this with a joint participation model (similar to the previous Secure Data Storage effort), to include W3C DID WG, W3C CCG, ToIP, INATBA — in addition to DIF members.

* Repo : https://github.com/decentralized-identity/did-methods

* *DID Traits WG*

* Scope: G uides implementers of DIDs in selecting suitable DID methods for their specific use cases by defining proven and relevant Decentralized Identifiers traits

* Repo : https://github.com/decentralized-identity/did-traits

*Implementation Focus Relevant to GS1*

We are seeing a sharp uptick in interest in decentralized identity architectures from new participants focused on industrial / IOT / supply chain use cases.

In fact, through the DID Methods WG we've met some active participants from the Open Credentialing Initiative (OCI), whose focus in enabling the pharmaceutical industry to comply with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) requirements and enhancing patient safety. They have adopted DIDs and VCs in their solutions and demonstrate a powerful success story.

DIF launched DIF Labs ( https://labs.identity.foundation/ ) late last year, and it would be fantastic to include a showcase project of interest to GS1 there.

Please reach out any time.

Kim

Sent via Superhuman ( https://sprh.mn/?vip=kimdhamilton@gmail.com )

On Wed, Feb 12, 2025 at 12:20 PM, Phil Archer < phil.archer@gs1.org > wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> It's an interesting point, Adrian, and one that comes up in our
> discussions.
> 
> 
> 
> So much of the DID work is focused on privacy which is obviously not an
> important feature for inanimate objects.
> 
> 
> 
> @Manu - duly noted. Thank you.
> 
> 
> 
> Phil
> 
> 
> 
> On 12 February 2025 19:07, Adrian Gropper wrote:
> In the positive spirit of this thread and our desire to drive adoption of
> DIDs and VCs, wouldn't it make sense to clearly and intentionally separate
> work on use-cases like GS1 and use-cases that have human subjects?
> 
> 
> 
> Adrian
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Feb 12 , 2025 at 9:02 AM Manu Sporny < msporny@ digitalbazaar. com
> ( msporny@digitalbazaar.com ) <mailto: msporny@ digitalbazaar. com (
> msporny@digitalbazaar.com ) > > wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Feb 11 , 2025 at 7:40 AM Phil Archer < phil. archer@ gs1. org (
> phil.archer@gs1.org ) <mailto: phil. archer@ gs1. org ( phil.archer@gs1.org
> ) > > wrote:
> 
> 
>> 
>> 
>> Following this work, GS1 is committed to taking small steps with VCs. Some
>> of our GS1 Member Organisations (such as GS1 US, GS1 Netherlands and
>> others) will be able to issue a VC proving that a GS1 identifier is
>> licensed by a company we know. GS1 Global Office will act as a root of
>> trust. This will be consistent with things like the UN Transparency
>> Protocol.
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> Phil, this is fantastic news! Even a crawl is forward movement and we are
> grateful to you, the team at GS1, and your industry for moving VCs and
> DIDs forward. Knowing the sheer size and scale of GS1, I know that this
> announcement was most likely years in the making.
> 
> 
> 
> I can confirm that other parts of the trade and supply chain world are
> moving forward with DIDs and VCs and we can expect more announcements of
> this sort over the coming months to years.
> 
> 
> 
> What concrete things can the communities CC'd on this email do to help GS1
> in this endeavor? Public examples, interop tests, integration with vcplayground.
> org ( http://vcplayground.org/ ) < http:/ / vcplayground. org (
> http://vcplayground.org/ ) > , threat models, documentation, extensions to
> existing specifications? Once VCDM v2.0 is proposed as a global standard
> (next few months), we'll be in the position to consider new work for the
> next Verifiable Credentials WG Charter and DID Methods WG. How can we
> sculpt that work to help your efforts?
> 
> 
> 
> -- manu
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Manu Sporny - https:/ / www. linkedin. com/ in/ manusporny/ (
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/manusporny/ ) Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar,
> Inc.
> https:/ / www. digitalbazaar. com/ ( https://www.digitalbazaar.com/ )
> 
> 
> 
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