A Verifiable Credential (VC) is a structured digital document defined by the W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model standard that makes tamper-evidence and cryptographic verifiability first-class properties of any credential, including educational certificates and badges. A VC has three parties: the issuer (an institution or platform that signs it), the holder (the learner who stores it in a digital wallet), and the verifier (an employer or registry that checks the issuer's signature without contacting them directly). The credential is signed with the issuer's cryptographic key, so any change to the content breaks the signature, making forgery detectable. Open Badges 3.0 is built on the VC data model, meaning an Open Badge is a specialised type of Verifiable Credential focused on skills and achievements. Verifiable Credentials can be combined into a Verifiable Presentation, allowing a learner to share a curated selection of credentials to a specific verifier without exposing other credentials in their wallet. Implementation requires an issuer DID (Decentralized Identifier) infrastructure, a compatible wallet for learners, and verifier tooling — the ecosystem is maturing but not yet universally adopted in corporate learning. The key practical benefit is that verifiers do not need to maintain a lookup API or database; the credential itself is the authoritative source once the issuer's public key is known.
