cheqd's unique superpower for monetising credential issuance
Verifier pays Issuer is a Credential Payment flow that enables "issuers" to charge a premium fee to validate the legitimacy of the credential's status. This is an incredibly powerful tool for companies that want to issue Verifiable Credentials, but also want to put a sensible commercial model in place.
This is Jane Doe
Jane Doe has recently completed her university degree at Bright University. She wants to receive a digital, verifiable and certifiable copy of her diploma to apply for a prospective job.
In order for this to happen, first Bright University needs to register their Decentralised Identifier (DID) to a Verifiable Data Registry or ledger. In this case, Bright University anchor their DID to cheqd, using the cheqd DID method.
Bright University, however, want to make sure that they also receive a payment when Jane uses her digital diploma for other purposes. As such, Bright University create a "Premium" credential with a $20.00 fee to fully validate.
Bright University anchor their DID to cheqd, and create a "chargeable" $20.00 DID-Linked Resource to allow relying parties to Pay to Trust the credential's status and also the governance framework under which the university operates.
The specific Public DID is registered as did:cheqd:mainnet:923u592u5ghgu3r8 and the DID-Linked Resouce is available via did:cheqd:mainnet:923u592u5ghgu3r8/resources/5c2529b0-656d-4244-8e55-906d124df523.
Bright University specify that $20.00 must be paid to Bright University to access the status information regarding the credential they will issue to Jane.
Jane has completed her degree and she has successfully achieved a First Class Honours. Now, she wants to receive a digital copy of the diploma to be able to hold it in her digital identity wallet.
On the physical certificate there is a QR code which Jane scans. This creates a peer-to-peer encrypted channel between the University and Jane's phone, which has her digital identity wallet.
Bright University issues a Verifiable Credential to Jane through this peer-to-peer encrypted channel. The Verifiable Credential has the following claims:
This is Jane Doe's diploma
Jane Doe graduated from Bright University in the year 2022
Jane Doe achieved a First Class Honours in her MSC degree in Computer Science.
$20.00 ($CHEQ or stablecoin) must be paid to Bright University to validate and verify the status pof the credential.
The Verifiable Credential has a proof, meaning it is digitally signed by the Public DID of Bright University, as well as potentially cryptographic material referring to a specific public key, which may be used for a particular purpose (such as asserting claims).
Jane receives the Verifiable Credential to her digital identity wallet and this entire data flow takes place off-ledger. This is important because it keeps all of Jane's personal information private, and only with her.
Jane now holds a Verifiable Credential of her University degree in her digital identity wallet and is able to use this to prove claims about herself.
Jane applies online for a new job as a Lead Engineer at a leading technology company.
The technology company asks for Jane to upload her education records. Rather than filling out the form manually; Jane scans another QR code to create a peer-to-peer encrypted channel with the technology company. Jane sends a Verifiable Presentation containing her claims and the attached proof to those claims, in a few clicks or taps.
The technology company is only able to verify the validity of the claims that Jane presents by resolving the DID embedded in the Presentation and by paying $20.00 to Bright University to verify the Credential's legitimacy, status and validity.
Through paying to verify the credential, the technology company is able to see the DID Document and also the Credential status information stored as a DID-Linked Resource. Automatically, the technology company is able to ascertain that the proof inside Jane's Verifiable Presentation was issued by the real Bright University and is for the correct purpose.
The technology company is now satisfied and progresses Jane to the next phase of the application.
On the other side, Bright University make $20.00, which they can later withdraw into fiat currency. This creates a trusted relationship between the "Verifier" (technology company) and the "Issuer" (Bright University) whereby a fair payment can be made for cryptographically verifiable data that makes the technology companies recruitment process much easier.
