Proof of certification

Overview

Graduates prove qualifications to employers or regulators by presenting a verifiable degree or certification credential from their wallet.

The verifier can check that the qualification was issued by a trusted institution and is still valid without waiting for manual confirmation from the university.

Why it matters

Manual verification is slow and vulnerable to fraud. It can delay hiring, licensing, professional registration, and immigration processes while increasing the burden on education providers.

Verifiable Credentials create a cleaner model:

• the graduate controls presentation of their qualification evidence
• the employer or regulator verifies the credential at application time
• the issuer remains the source of truth for award status
• verification can happen without exposing unrelated student records

Ecosystem roles

• Issuer: The education institution that issued the qualification.
• Holder: The graduate.
• Verifier: Employers, professional bodies, or platforms assessing eligibility.
• Trust governance: The rules that define accepted institutions, credential schemas, award status, and replacement or revocation paths.

Trust decision

The verifier decision is narrow: does this applicant hold the qualification required for this role, registration, or assessment?

That decision may depend on qualification title, institution, completion date, status, equivalence, and any professional recognition rules.

Privacy and assurance

The verifier should request only the certification claims relevant to the assessment. For example, a role may require a specific degree or accreditation without needing transcripts or unrelated academic history.

Assurance depends on checking issuer trust, credential integrity, status, and whether the presented qualification satisfies the verifier’s policy.

Implementation notes

• Define accepted qualification schemas and issuer trust lists for each recruitment or registration pathway.
• Avoid retaining full credential payloads unless required for audit or compliance.
• Support replacement credentials if an award is corrected or reissued.
• Keep exception handling for overseas qualifications, unsupported issuers, and manual equivalence review.

Objective

Enable an employer or other verifier to validate a job applicant's degree certificate.

Description

A graduate presents a qualification credential so the verifier can confirm education certification.

Actors

Job applicant or graduate; education institution; employer, professional body, or platform verifier.

Dependencies

The applicant holds a digital degree or certification credential in their wallet, and the verifier can check issuer trust and status.

Preconditions

The applicant is applying for a position or registration pathway with education requirements.

Postconditions

The verifier receives a trusted certification result and can progress, deny, or escalate the application.

flowchart LR
    UNI@{icon: "tabler:school", label: "University", pos: "b"} -->|Issues degree VC| WAL@{icon: "tabler:wallet", label: "Wallet", pos: "b"}
    WAL -->|Presents credential| VER@{icon: "tabler:id-badge", label: "Employer / verifier", pos: "b"}
    VER -->|Status check| REG@{icon: "tabler:book", label: "Credential registry", pos: "b"}

sequenceDiagram
    participant University
    participant Wallet
    participant Graduate
    participant Verifier as Employer / verifier
    participant Registry as Credential registry

    University-->>Wallet: Issue degree VC
    Graduate->>Wallet: Stores credential
    Graduate->>Verifier: Present degree VC
    Verifier->>Registry: Check status
    Registry-->>Verifier: Valid
    Verifier-->>Graduate: Verification complete