Re: DIF Presentation Exchange Specification v1.0

It is customary when developing standards to seek review from the broader
community. In this case, the broader community is anyone working in digital
identity, which includes verifiable credentials.
A similar announcement was recently made by the W3C DID WG to let DIF know
that the Decentralized Identifiers Specification was seeking review.

This announcement was made on this mailing list as the DIF specification
announced may be of interest to those involved with Verifiable Credentials,
and review from those persons would provide valuable feedback.


On Thu, Dec 17, 2020 at 4:12 PM David Elie Raymond Christophe Ammouial <
david.elie.raymond.christophe.ammouial@everis.com> wrote:

> Hello Brent,
>
> Thank you for sharing the work done so far.
>
> I'd like to understand the participation model better for the Presentation
> Definition spec (and the work of the DIF in general probably). My
> understanding is that the DIF is an organization with controlled membership
> and similar objectives to those of the W3C's identity-related WGs, but
> operated privately and with limited participation possibilities for
> non-members.
>
> If the above is correct, I'm having a difficult time understanding what is
> expected from this W3C WG with occasional one-direction announcements like
> this one, since this working group doesn't have a real opportunity to
> participate in the discussion anyway. I apologize if I'm getting it wrong,
> but I think having competing standardization bodies, especially when one of
> them is closed, creates opacity, fragmentation and at the end of the day
> hurts standardization as much as it helps it.
>
> While I understand that having a completely open process like the W3C's
> would not be favorable to the DIF's economic model, I have trouble figuring
> what to make of the announcement on this mailing list – besides considering
> becoming a DIF member.
>
> Again, I apologize for the adverse reaction if I got it all wrong.
>
> Best regards.
> David Ammouial
>
>
> From: Brent Zundel <brent.zundel@evernym.com>
> Date: Thursday, 17 December 2020 at 17:10
> To: W3C Verifiable Credentials Working Group <public-vc-wg@w3.org>
> Subject: DIF Presentation Exchange Specification v1.0
>
> Fellow community members,
>
> The DIF Claims and Credentials Working Group is pleased to announce that
> the https://identity.foundation/presentation-exchange/spec/v1.0.0/ is now
> a Working Group Draft. We invite you to review the specification in advance
> of its transition to Working Group Approved status. After this period of
> review, we will call for implementations as we progress toward a v1.0
> Ratification candidate.
>
> Abstract
>
> A common activity between peers in identity systems that feature the
> ability to generate self-asserted and third-party issued claims is the
> demand and submission of proofs from a Holder to a Verifier. This flow
> implicitly requires the Holder and Verifier have a known mechanism to
> facilitate the two primary steps in a proving exchange: the way Verifiers
> define the proof requirements, and how Holders must encode submissions of
> proof to align with those requirements.
>
> To address these needs, this Presentation Exchange specification codifies
> the Presentation Definition data format Verifiers can use to articulate
> proof requirements, as well as the Presentation Submission data format
> Holders can use to submit proofs in accordance with them. The specification
> is designed to be both claim format and transport envelope agnostic,
> meaning an implementer can use JSON Web Tokens (JWTs), Verifiable
> Credentials (VCs), JWT-VCs, or any other claim format, and convey them via
> Open ID Connect, DIDComm, Credential Handler API, or any other transport
> envelope.
>
> Comments on the Draft are welcome through 03:59 UTC/GMT on 2021-01-22
> (23:59 Boston time on 2021-01-22) and should be provided as issues raised
> on the
> https://github.com/decentralized-identity/presentation-exchange/issues.
>
> Thank you,
> Brent Zundel,
> co-Editor
>