Digital credentials that go where you go
Portable, private, and instantly verifiable.
A diploma, certificate, license, or badge can now carry its own proof along with rich detail about the skills behind it. Share it, and anyone can check that it’s real.
Checking…
- Issued by Riverbend Community College
- Hasn’t been tampered with
- Still valid
Digital Credentials Commons (DCC) is a growing community of institutions, organizations, vendors, and learners that are advancing the use of privacy-first, portable, verifiable digital credentials.
How it works
A digital credential can be a record of something you’ve accomplished, such as a degree, a completed course, or a job you’ve held. The organization behind it signs it digitally, and that signature stays attached to the record.
- You receive it.A school, training program, or employer issues the credential to you.
- You keep it.It goes into a digital wallet with your other credentials, and you decide who sees it.
- You share it.Send it to an employer, a school, or anyone else. They can check it themselves, on the spot.
The DCC implements and encourages the use of W3C Verifiable Credentials and 1EdTech Open Badges, because open standards mean digital credentials can be used across the web. They work from one system to the next, not only where they were issued. These standards also give learners verifiable achievements they can access right away, with control over who or what has access to them.
Try it yourself
The quickest way to understand a digital credential is to hold one. Tell us your name and email, and we’ll send you a sample credential to add to Learner Credential Wallet on your phone.
This is a demo. The sample credential is for trying things out and doesn’t record a real achievement.
Sample credential
LCW Experience Badge
Issued by Digital Credentials Commons
Our work
At the center of our work is a simple goal: empowering learners to have real access to and control over their credential data, so they can store and share their achievements wherever opportunity takes them.
We bring together the people and organizations working toward that goal. If you’re new to this, we’ll help you figure out where to start.
Open standards
Standards are shaped by whoever takes part. We take part on behalf of learners, the organizations that serve them, and the vendors that build for them, in the W3C Credentials Community Group and 1EdTech’s work on Open Badges.
Open-source software
Everything we build is freely available and open source. You’ll find all of it at github.com/digitalcredentials.
Tools for issuing credentials from your own systems, either as a standalone service or built into software you already run.
A wallet for keeping and sharing your credentials on your phone, for iOS and Android. We’re also building a new web version. Get in touch to hear more about it.
A free website for checking whether a credential is real, with no account needed.
Issuer trust
The Issuer Identity Registry, developed with Credential Engine, helps anyone checking a credential confirm the identity of the organization that issued it. Learner Credential Wallet and VerifierPlus check it automatically.
About
The Digital Credentials Consortium was founded in 2018 at MIT Open Learning by a group of member universities across North America, Europe, and Asia. Together they built shared infrastructure for issuing, keeping, and checking digital credentials.
Today it continues as Digital Credentials Commons, hosted by Strada Education Foundation. We’re a membership organization and a community of partners across education, employment, government, and technology.
We contribute to open standards and develop open-source software. We also provide technology services and consulting to help organizations adopt digital credentials.
If you’re an organization or vendor interested in working with us, let us know.
Get in touch
Tell us who you are and what you’re interested in. We’ll follow up with news and resources, and set up a time to talk if you’d like.
