As announced by the W3C, the Verifiable Credentials 2.0 family of specifications is now a W3C Recommendation. The new W3C Recommendations that I was an editor for are:
- Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0
- Securing Verifiable Credentials using JOSE and COSE
- Controlled Identifiers v1.0
I joined the VC 2.0 journey in 2022 with the goal of there being a simple, secure, standards-based way to sign W3C Verifiable Credentials. The VC-JOSE-COSE specification accomplishes that – defining how to secure VC Data Model payloads with JOSE, SD-JWT, or COSE signatures. As I wrote when the Proposed Recommendations were published, while I’m admittedly not a fan of JSON-LD, to the extent that Verifiable Credentials using the JSON-LD-based VC Data Model are in use, I was committed to there being a solid VC-JOSE-COSE specification so there is a simple, secure, standards-based way to secure these credentials. That goal is now accomplished.
Particular thanks go to my co-editors of VC-JOSE-COSE Gabe Cohen and Mike Prorock, former editor Orie Steele, and working group chair Brent Zundel for the significant work they all both put in throughout the journey. And of course, Manu Sporny and Ivan Herman were always diligent about moving things along.
One of my personal mottos is “Finishing things matters”. This is now finished. As the song says, “What a long, strange trip it’s been”!