Digital Credentials on a Solid Pod
Verifying the identity of an online user is extremely important as most institutions have transitioned their bureaucratic processes online. Yet, identity verification is still done through antiquated techniques like expensive background checks.
Identity verification would be much simpler if there were an easily accessible piece of data that could be cryptographically proven to hold a true claim about some aspect of an individual identity. Thankfully, verifiable credentials in a Solid wallet does just that.
An example use case involves a company wanting to verify that a job candidate completed a certain course at a university. Under the current, background-check model, the company would need to contact the university directly and asking if a particular student completed the course. The university would then need to either set up an automated system to provide this data to the company or it would need to have a clerk manually provide that data. This is a lot of overhead for both the university and the
However, with verifiable credentials in a Solid Pod, the university issues some information stating that a student completed a course and cryptography signs that information. This is a verifiable credential. They then pass that credential to the student who stores it in their Solid Personal Online Datastore (Pod). When the student wants to apply for a job, all they need to do is grant access to the credential so the company can read it. The company can confirm that the credential isn’t faked because its cryptographically signed by the university.
Digital credentials and identity verification touches every industry. If your organization is interested in using verifiable credentials and Solid wallets, O.team can help.
