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Certificate / Credential Record

vr.wm-rec-008 · wm-rec-008-certificate-credential-record

Describe the issued documentary representation of an attestation and its controlled local record context.

World Models Information and virtual systems INF.REC.CRT
Bundle → Layer → Finding → QuestionsClassifiersWhat it isWhy it existsDistinguishing featuresWhat robots and AI may and may not doMoral aspectsOwnersLinks to other meta-modelsIdentity and identifiersDirect propertiesRecognitionCapabilities and actionsHazards and failure modesStandards and interfacesContext of useSources

Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled

3 bundles · 3 layers · 5 findings · 10 questions

Issuance Who issued what about whom.

Issuer, subject and claims

The parties and the claims the record attests.

Issuer and subject

The issuing body and the person, organisation or thing the record is about.

  1. Who issued the certificate, and under which authority or accreditation?
  2. Who or what is the subject of the certificate?

Attested claims

The claims stated in the record, such as a qualification or a conformity.

  1. Which claims does the certificate attest?
  2. Against which standard, programme or rule were they assessed?
Validity Whether the record holds now.

Term and status

Issue date, expiry, suspension and revocation.

Validity status

Whether the certificate is valid, expired, suspended or revoked on a given date.

  1. When was the certificate issued, and when does it expire?
  2. Has it been suspended or revoked, and where is that status published?
Verification How a relying party checks the record.

Integrity and authenticity

Signatures, security features and issuer registers.

Verification method

The means of checking that the record is authentic and unaltered.

  1. Is the record digitally signed, and with which key or certificate?
  2. Can the record be checked against the issuer's register?

Presentation

How the holder presents the record and what is disclosed.

  1. Does the presentation disclose more claims than the relying party needs?
  2. Is the presented copy the original, a certified copy or a derived credential?

Classifiers Filled

Family
World Models
Category
Information and virtual systems
Entry kind
entity
Navigation path
NAV.INF.REC.CRT
Domain
INF.REC.CRT
Industry
Cross-industry
Tags
certificatecredentialrecordinf.rec.crt

What it is Filled

A certificate or credential record is the issued document that represents an attestation, such as a diploma, licence, certificate of conformity, birth certificate extract or digital verifiable credential. It carries the issuer, the subject, the claims attested, validity and a means of verification. The attestation itself is the underlying act of vouching; the certificate is its documentary form.

In scope

  • Record identity, documentary class, issuer and subject references, extracted claims and profile bindings
  • Issued payload, copies, receipt, provenance, time assertions and observed status
  • Verification-report references, disclosure references, correction lineage, retention and loss-aware projections

Out of scope

  • Creation of substantive attestations or grants; issuer accreditation and identity master systems
  • Issuing, renewing, suspending or revoking credentials; key management, proof generation and cryptographic verification execution
  • Presentation-session ownership across credentials; wallet operation, authentication and relying-party authorization decisions
  • Universal legal recognition, paper forensic authentication, sector certification and executable protocol conformance

Why it exists Filled

Describe the issued documentary representation of an attestation and its controlled local record context.

Distinguishing features Filled

  • It is the documentary form of an attestation; the act of attesting is modelled separately.
  • Validity can change after issuance through expiry, suspension or revocation.
  • A permit or licence grants rights; the certificate is the document that evidences such a grant or a fact.
  • It must be verifiable by a relying party without contacting the holder.

What robots and AI may and may not do Filled

Must not

  • Issue, alter or reissue a certificate without the issuer's authority.
  • Accept a certificate as valid without checking its status where a status service exists.
  • Produce copies that could pass as originals.
  • Disclose credential contents beyond what the holder consented to share.
  • Treat a self-asserted claim as an attested one.

Only with a human decision

  • Issuing or revoking a certificate.
  • Accepting a certificate that cannot be verified electronically.
  • Deciding a dispute about the authenticity of a certificate.

May

  • Verify a certificate's signature, issuer and status before relying on it.
  • Record issued certificates with issuer, subject, claims and validity.
  • Help a holder present only the claims a relying party needs.
  • Report expired, suspended or revoked certificates.

Moral aspects Filled

  • Forged or wrongly revoked credentials can cost people jobs, rights and safety.
  • Credentials often carry personal data, so holders should control what is disclosed.
  • People who lost documents, such as refugees, need fair ways to prove their qualifications.

Who is affected

  • Holders and subjects of certificates
  • Issuers and accreditation bodies
  • Relying parties such as employers and authorities

Owners Filled

Steward

The issuing body that creates the certificate and maintains its status.

Roles

Record custodian
Maintains documentary identity and authorized record revisions.
Issuer liaison
Supplies or confirms external issuance and status evidence without acquiring authority from this record.
Subject or authorized holder
Requests permitted access and correction and controls disclosures where the profile assigns that role.
Evidence reviewer
Checks report bindings, conflicting observations and unsupported interpretations.
Policy steward
Approves retention, access, profile bindings and exception escalation.

Master systems

  • Issuer's certificate register
  • Public key infrastructure and status services
  • Credential wallets held by subjects

Links to other meta-models Filled

references

  • WM-XCT-017 - Candidate binding to underlying attestation and issuer-controlled lifecycle; registry parent is not executable inheritance. Version and ownership agreement must be pinned before runtime use.
  • WM-POL-004 - Optional process or authorization context evidenced by a document; retain external process identity and authority.
  • WM-PER-013 - Optional professional grant reference; the record only preserves documentary evidence.
  • WM-XCT-006 - Optional external verification evidence binding; no verifier runtime or proof generation is owned here.

aligned

  • W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model 2.0 - Optional digital representation profile; pin vocabulary, schema, securing mechanism and status mechanism independently.
  • RFC 5280 and RFC 6960 - Optional PKI profile; its serials, time and status semantics do not apply universally.
  • Open Badges 3.0 - Optional education profile; achievement definitions remain external and mappings require tests.
  • PROV-O - Conceptual lineage vocabulary only, without a conformance or truth claim.

neighbor

  • WM-XCT-017 Attestation / Credential - Registry parent is a candidate semantic relationship. Reference the attestation and its status authority; this record model must not duplicate issuance, suspension, revocation or acceptance operations. Parent publication is a reviewable draft, not a pinned runtime dependency.
  • WM-POL-004 Permit / Authorization and WM-PER-013 Professional License / Credential - Optional references to the process or governed grant evidenced by the document. Possessing or deleting a copy does not grant or extinguish rights.
  • WM-XCT-006 Verification / ZK Attestation - Reference an external verification report and its method. Cryptographic algorithms and selective disclosure proof generation remain outside the local record.
  • Presentation session and identity masters - A presentation can combine multiple credentials and has independent identity. Holder, subject, custodian and issuer are distinct references; a local copy does not establish their equivalence.

parent

  • WM-XCT-017

What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled

Identity and identifiers required Filled

  • A certificate is identified by its serial or certificate number issued by the issuer.
  • Digital credentials carry identifiers in the credential data and the issuer's identifier.
  • Issuers are identified by accreditation or registration numbers.

Direct properties not applicable Not applicable

Not applicable

The subject is an institutional or informational record, not a physical object with measurable properties.

Recognition optional Filled

  • A certificate names an issuer, a subject, attested claims, an issue date and a verification means.
  • Often confused with the underlying attestation, with a permit, or with an unsigned copy.

Capabilities and actions required Filled

  • Certificates can be issued, renewed, suspended and revoked.
  • Relying parties can verify signature and status.
  • Holders can present selected claims.

Hazards and failure modes required Filled

  • Forged or tampered certificates accepted as genuine.
  • Reliance on revoked or expired certificates.
  • Over-disclosure of personal data during presentation.

Standards and interfaces required Filled

  • W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model for digital credentials.
  • X.509 certificates and revocation lists for public key certificates.
  • ISO/IEC 18013-5 for mobile driving licences.

Context of use required Filled

  • Used in education, professional licensing, product conformity, civil status and travel.
  • Electronic signatures and trust services are regulated, for example under the EU eIDAS Regulation.

Sources Filled

  1. Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0 - World Wide Web Consortium
  2. Verifiable Credential Data Integrity 1.0 - World Wide Web Consortium
  3. Bitstring Status List v1.0 - World Wide Web Consortium
  4. Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List Profile - Internet Engineering Task Force
  5. X.509 Internet Public Key Infrastructure Online Certificate Status Protocol - OCSP - Internet Engineering Task Force
  6. Digital Identity Guidelines: Federation and Assertions - National Institute of Standards and Technology
  7. Open Badges Specification - 1EdTech Consortium
  8. PROV-O: The PROV Ontology - World Wide Web Consortium
  9. ITU-T Recommendation X.509, Public-key and attribute certificate frameworks
  10. Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services (eIDAS), European Union

Open questions

  • Restore independent external review and verify exact source versions, update chains and applicable licensing before promotion.
  • Agree the WM-XCT-017 boundary and pin optional neighbor bindings without duplicating attestation or presentation ownership.
  • Develop profile-specific schemas and fixtures for identifier collisions, unknown or stale status, mismatched reports, multiple credentials in one presentation, correction, replacement and lawful disposal.
  • Research legal recognition, paper authenticity, mobile-document and offline profiles with appropriate primary evidence.
  • Independent second-provider review is absent; this remains a reviewable draft.
  • Live HTTP and exact source-version checks remain pending outside the sandbox.
  • Nested data schemas, report schemas, cryptographic test vectors and versioned neighbor bindings are not implemented.
  • Jurisdictional recognition, eIDAS, civil status, conformity certification and mobile-document licensed clauses need separate profiles.
  • Paper authenticity, inaccessible-source remediation, archival proof renewal and offline presentation profiles require further evidence.

Machine files

Card as JSON Specification AGENTS.md Source Card backlog vercy.card/1

Provenance

world-models research · reviewable-draft

Built from: models/wm-rec-008-certificate-credential-record/spec.yaml, ver-cy/world-models/card-supplements/wm-rec-008-certificate-credential-record.json