TBD Launches Tech Preview of Web5 Verifiable Credentials Toolkit 

New components help developers build decentralized applications where individuals own and control their personal identities and credentials without relying on centralized authorities

TBD, a developer-focused business from Block, founded to make a decentralized future accessible to everyone, announced a tech preview of its Verifiable Credentials (VCs) Toolkit for Web5. With today’s release, developers will be able to spin up and manage Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), issue verifiable credentials, and define templates to make it easy and efficient to issue and verify these credentials. 

Web5 brings an identity and trust layer to the decentralized web

With the rise of AI and deep fake technology on the internet, proving one’s identity will become increasingly difficult.  Every industry will see the rise of fraudulent representations, powered by AI, that will be increasingly difficult for humans to distinguish from authentic representations across every aspect of our digital lives and transactions. 

Web5 is a decentralized, open source platform that provides a new, reliable identity and trust layer for the Web to enable decentralized applications and protocols that solve real problems for people. TBD’s approach to a decentralized web is one built on open source standards and protocols, without proprietary blockchains or utility tokens.

Verifiable Credentials (VCs) and Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) are two building blocks of Web5. VCs are an international standard for creating independently verifiable sets of claims about others from individuals or entities. Some examples of verifiable credentials include claims like proving one’s employment, education, or ability to drive (via a driver’s license). Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is a model for managing digital identities that empowers individuals to have full control and ownership over their personal data and identities. Web5 takes these concepts and standards for SSIs into account in order to enable the full potential of what VCs and Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) have to offer. 

There are a number of standards and open source bodies that facilitate VC and SSI-standard development, including the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF), and OpenID Foundation (OIDF). TBD is committed to contributing to these organizations and is focused on fostering a community and ecosystem around Web5.

TBD’s open source VC Toolkit for Web5 is ready for use

Building upon TBD’s recently announced Web5 tech preview, today the TBD team released three SSI projects as part of the Web5 stack to efficiently manage DIDs as well as create, manage, issue, and revoke VCs. The toolkit includes: 

• SSI SDK: encapsulates a set of standards related to self-sovereign identity to provide flexible functionality for building decentralized identity applications. The SDK facilitates the application, issuance, and exchange of Verifiable Credentials.

• SSI Service:  is a RESTful-API web service that wraps the SSI SDK to facilitate user-focused interactions on Web5 related to signing, verifying, and exchanging data between participants using Decentralized Identifiers and Verifiable Credentials, based on the latest standards across the W3C, DIF, and IETF. 

• SSI Console: which manages the VC lifecycle from issuance to revocation through a user-friendly GUI.

Benri is hosting TBD's SSI service and SSI console in a playground in order to enable anyone to learn more about SSI technology. With Benri, developers can access TBD’s SSI service in a playground environment and explore the power of SSI in a secure and easy-to-use environment. 

Developers can get started with TBD’s SSI Service and SSI SDK by visiting developer.tbd.website or joining our Discord community at https://discord.com/invite/tbd.