---
# System prepended metadata

title: 'Proposal for a DIF WG ID Work Item: Linked Verifiable Presentations'

---

# Proposal for a DIF WG ID Work Item: Linked Verifiable Presentations

INFO!!
: DIF work item, all work continues here: https://github.com/decentralized-identity/linked-vp/

## Motivation

Currently, there are multiple specifications for discovering DIDs that are accosiated with DNS names, see
[references](#references). However, there's currently no specification that
makes Verifiable Presentations and Credentials discoverable that belong to a DID or to 
a DNS name.

Currently, the only way an application or web service can access VCs of a DID is to use a data exchange protocol like [OpenID4VC](https://openid.net/openid4vc/) or [DIDComm](https://didcomm.org/) to request and receive the desired credential. While this data exchange is important for VCs that shall be kept private, Holders might desire to make other VCs public. For public VCs the required data exchange increases the complexity of applications that want to discover and access these VCs because the application would need to implement a data exchange protocol.

## Proposed work item

This proposal proposes to create a specification for linking Verifiable Credentials to a DID via the [services section in the DID Document](https://w3c.github.io/did-core/#services).

The goal of this specification is to simplify discovery and retrieval of published Verifiable Credentials.

## Potential Use Cases

- Linking an official business registration credential (if there was such a
  thing) to a DNS name to reduce the burden of verifying the authenticity of a
  website.
- Making the mandatory imprint page on a website machine readable by
  self-issuing an imprint credential and connecting it to the DID of the website
  to reduce the burden of vistors to extract relevant data from the imprint
  page.

## Other work to consider

- The [did:webs Method Specification](https://trustoverip.github.io/tswg-did-method-webs-specification/index.html#signed-files) defines how the DID URL path is to be used for resolving signed files in general, and files of VCs and VPs in particular. Notably:
  - A DID URL of the form `<did>/path/to/file` resolves to a file, and MUST have beside it a `<did>/path/to/file.jws` a JWS of the hash of the file signed by the controlling DID.
  - This approach is extremely easy with a web-based DID Method (transform the DID into an HTTPS URL and `GET`), but can be used by any DID Method.
  - Using the DID URL `whois` path MAY return a Verifiable Presentation that contains an array of Verifiable Credentials all of which must have the DID as the credential subject. The Verifiable Presentation proof is signed by DID.
- [DID Specification Registries - Service types](https://w3c.github.io/did-spec-registries/#service-types)
- The [Service type - CredentialRegistry](https://w3c.github.io/did-spec-registries/#credentialregistry) specification provides a similar use case. They're focused on Verifiable Credentials that are issued by a third party. This proposal's focus on Verifiable Presentations would allow the holder to have more control over the published credential by signing the presentation and potentially limiting it to a certain domain name, etc.
- X.509 certificates contain information about the issuing and holding party.
  With this proposal a DID + VC could provide the same functionality.
- [identinet-plugin](https://github.com/identinet/identinet-plugin) is a browser
  add-on that demonstrates how Well Known DID and VC data can be leveraged for
  the end user.
- Verifiable Credentials are independent of DIDs, therefore it should be
  considered to make the DID linking aspect optional / make the specification
  useful even if no DID is used.

## References

- [The Decentralized Identifier (DID) in the DNS](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-mayrhofer-did-dns/) specifies the use of the URI Resource Record Type to
   publish Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) in the Domain Name System.
- The [did:web Method Specification](https://w3c-ccg.github.io/did-method-web/)
  defines how to discover a did:web DID for a DNS name (unidirectional) via the
  `/.well-known/did.json` path.
- The
  [Well Known DID Configuration](https://identity.foundation/.well-known/resources/did-configuration/)
  specification defines how to create a bi-directional relationship between a
  DID, independent of the DID method, and a DNS name via the
  `/.well-known/did-configuration.json` path.
