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Trust Resolution

Understanding Trust Resolution​

Trust Resolution is as simple as calling a method passing the DID of the service we want to resolve, to display a Proof-of-Trust to the end-user:

resolve_trust("did:example:gaia")

and receive a response similar to this one:

{
  "did":"did:example:gaia",
  "verified": true,
  "service_provider": {
      "id": "did:example:def",
      "type": "Organization",
      "name": "Gaia Registry LLC",
      "country": "zz",
      "reputation": {
        "issuedCredentials": 1234,
        "verifiedCredentials": 7678,
        "trustDepositValue": 176327.124356,
        "amountSlashed": 0,
        "stars": 5.0
      },
      "issuer": "did:example:zzz",
      ...
  },
  "service": {
      "name": "Gaia Registry",
      "termsAndConditions": "http://example.com",
      "privacyPolicy": "http://example.com",
      "minimumAgeRequired": 16,
      "description": "Create your Metaverse ID at Gaia Registry! Protect your identity with biometrics and easily recover it if you loose your phone. Use your Gaia Identity to connect to fancy services with no password."
      ...
  },
  "credentials" : [
    {
      "type": "TrademarkCredential",
      ...
    }
  ]
  ...
}

Let's explain how the Verifiable Trust does it.

Proof-of-Trust​

The Don't Trust, Verify principle applied here:

Proof-of-Trust and Trust Resolution

The core idea behind Verifiable Trust is simple: trust should not be implicit, but it should be verifiable, transparent, and decentralized.

In this example, a Verifiable Service (VS) presents several Verifiable Credentials to prove:

  • Who operates the service, using an Essential Credential Schema (ECS) Service Verifiable Trust Credential (data shown in red)
  • What the service offers, using another ECS Service Verifiable Trust Credential (data shown in blue)
  • Trademark information, using a Trademark Verifiable Trust Credential (data shown in green)

Additionally, the Verifiable Service presents computed reputation information (data shown in black). While this reputation data may support trust decisions, it is not directly defined by this specification. Refer to the VPR Spec for more information.

Verifiable Trust introduces the following core concepts, concepts that are fully presented in this documentation:

  • Verifiable Service (VS)
  • Verifiable User Agent (VUA)
  • Verifiable Public Registry (VPR)
  • Verifiable Trust Credentials (VTC)
  • Essential Credential Schemas (ECS)

The Proof-of-Trust is established by recursively resolving the credentials presented by (in this example) a service. What makes this trust verifiable is the use of cryptographic mechanisms built into Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials, as applied across these five key concepts.

Because these concepts are deeply interdependent, you may need to explore them together, and revisit them several times to fully grasp the Verifiable Trust model.