Core capabilities

Selective disclosure

Selective disclosure is a technique to preserve privacy in verifiable credentials using the cryptography of BBS signatures. It enables holders to present only specific parts of their credentials to verifiers, based on the content of the request.

You can read more about our work on privacy-preserving verifiable credentials on our blog, or refer to Selective disclosure to learn more about the technology that is enabling this capability.

Revocation

Credentials issued using MATTR VII have the capability to be set with a revocation status that can be checked by Verifiers while preserving the privacy of the credential holder. This status can then be updated by Issuers of those credentials to indicate if the credential is revoked or still valid. The holder can use their digital wallet to see the latest revocation status of their credentials at any time.

Refer to our Revocation tutorial to learn more about this capability.

Credential registry

Whenever a Web Credential is created on MATTR VII, a small amount of meta-data is held about the credential. The actual credential, including any information about its subject, is typically stored in the holder’s digital wallet, but can also be configured to persist in the registry alongside the credential meta-data.

Credentials by nature tend to hold Personally Identifying Information (PII). Before storing credential data, familiarise yourself with compliance to any PII restrictions that may apply to your use-case.

A valid use case for the credential registry is in the case of non-personal credentials being held and retrieved for public display, for example, a Verifiable Organization Network or a company’s registry.

Refer to our Credential Registry tutorial to learn more about this capability.

Presentations

Though they are both part of the VC data model, Verifiable Credentials (VCs) are distinct from Verifiable Presentations (VPs). Presentations are typically generated or derived from VCs and presented by credential holders for the purposes of verification.

The VC spec defines a general data model for VPs, but doesn’t specify how to request specific information in a verifiable presentation. Our approach is based on the VP Request Spec at the W3C Credentials Community Group.

MATTR VII incorporates the privacy-preserving capabilities of verifiable presentations in its core capabilities.

Presentations are an area where the mobile wallet plays a very important role. While MATTR VII is used to create templates and generates requests for presentations, it’s the mobile wallet app that generates and derives these presentations and exchanges them on behalf of the user.