First Public Working Draft: Digital Credentials

The Federated Identity Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Digital Credentials. This API enables websites to request credentials, and for users to consent to return credentials that they carry around in digital wallets. The user agent (typically a browser) plays a critical role in empowering people to exchange verifiable information seamlessly on the web. The user experience of understanding what is being requested by a site, selecting from among relevant credentials, consenting to share the credentials, and getting new credentials from issuers (e.g., universities, the department of motor vehicles, a bank) must be excellent, and the browser is uniquely positioned to support that experience. 

Following extensive incubation, early implementations of the Digital Credentials API are now available from Google and Apple. People can view demos and conduct experiments, and the experimentation will inform the evolution of this specification. 

For more information, see the blog post: W3C Digital Credentials API publication: the next step to privacy-preserving identities on the web.