Mission

The Credential Exchange Protocols Task Force (CEPTF) is a task force of the ToIP Technology Stack Working Group. The mission of the CEPTF is to draft the Credential Exchange Protocols - Comparison Matrix to facilitate decision-making for implementers of credential exchange protocols that can be used at ToIP Layer 3, enabling them to select the right stack that meets their needs and context.

Credential exchange protocols, such as issuing and verifying credentials, are core elements in layer three of the Trust over IP stack and may require interaction with other trust tasks at Layer 3. The task force believes that it is essential to compare these credential exchange protocols against a common set of objective criteria to develop clear deliverables.

Since various credential exchange protocols exist across different communities, the CEPTF aims to work in collaboration with these other communities. These include the OpenID Foundation (OIDF), individuals from the ISO-18013-5 working groups, members from various Aries communities, the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF), and the W3C Credentials Community Group.

This exercise was kicked off on April 20, 2023 at IIW 36, and will require some further collaboration across communities to bring the work to fruition. The document will remain a living document, with updates over time as protocols evolve.

Deliverables

The deliverables of this task force are to complete v1 of the Issuance Protocols Comparison Matrix and the Verification Protocols Comparison Matrix, found here: Credential Exchange Protocols - Comparison Matrix.

Note: A similar effort was worked on for comparing credential formats in Rebooting the Web of Trust (11) - https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/rwot11-the-hague/blob/master/draft-documents/credential-profile-comparison.md 

Leadership

Please add your name to this list if you wish to be a lead of this task force:

  • Mathieu Glaude, Northern Block

Membership and Joining

Prior to participating in the meetings please ensure that you are a member of the Trust Over IP Foundation. Contributor level membership is available to anyone at no cost. Details can be found at this link.

To join this TF, add your name to this list:

  • <name here, plus affiliation if an organizational member>

Meeting Schedule and Notes (TBD)

This TF began meeting in June 2023. It holds one meeting (for NA/EU time zones) every Wednesday. We're initially looking at a series of 8 meetings from June 14th to August 2nd. The meeting slots are:

  • NA/EU: 09:00-10:00 ET / 15:00-16:00 CET

Please check the ToIP Calendar for current times and Zoom links for these meetings.

Meeting Notes, including Zoom recordings, are kept for every meeting — see the TSPTF Meeting Pages for an index.

Meetings agendas are also announced on the ToIP Slack channel #tswg-credential-exchange-protocols-tf. Please join us there.

Milestones

Our goal is to publish a v1 Credential Exchange Protocols - Comparison Matrix no later than August 31, 2023.

Intellectual Property Rights (Copyright, Patent, Source Code) (TBD)

As a Task Force (TF) of the Technology Stack WG (TSWG), the CEPTF inherits the IPR terms from the TSWG JDF Charter.

Mailing List and Communications (TBD)

This task force uses the following for communications