2 BACKGROUND ON VERIFIABLE DATA SHARING TECHNOLOGY
The goals of TSX can be met in various ways . The most common technique is the adoption of X . 509 certificates [ 5 ]. To achieve this , PCF certifiers must set up their own Certificate Authority ( CA ), which is essentially a server that is trusted to issue certificates to requesters . Hence , manufacturers need to reach out to the CA to receive PCF certificates . Another way is the provisioning of a centralized platform , merging manufacturers and certifiers to issue and exchange the PCF to maintain a common ground for data interchange . It is likely that the underlying technology for such a platform would also base on X . 509 certificates . Despite the presence of such technologies , the VC technology is much better suited for TSX for PCF .
2.1 INTRODUCTION TO VERIFIABLE CREDENTIALS
Credentials are a part of our daily lives ; driver ' s licenses are used to assert that we can operate a motor vehicle , university degrees can be used to assert our level of education , and governmentissued passports enable us to travel between countries or more recent discussion regards a vaccination pass . These credentials provide benefits to us when used in the physical world , but their use on the Web continues to be elusive [ 4 ]. Verifiable Credentials technology aims to leap this hurdle in the digital world . In the physical world , a credential might consist of information related
• to identifying the subject of the credential , such as a name ,
• to the issuing authority ,
• to the type of credential , and
• to specific attributes or properties being asserted by the issuing authority about the subject .
Figure 1 . An image showing different parties in the sharing of the verifiable credential and the underlying verifiable data registry that holds the public data , which is used as an anchor for the publicly trusted information . According to [ 4 ].
A verifiable credential can represent the same information as a physical credential . The addition of technologies , such as digital signatures , makes verifiable credentials more tamper-evident and more trustworthy than their physical counterparts . It contains claims , which are statements about a subject . A subject is a thing about which claims can be made . Claims are expressed using
34 January 2023