The Verifiable Credentials lifecycle (VC lifecycle) represents the different steps that of an exchange of Verifiable Credentials (VC) supported by the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI).

The actors of this lifecycle are:

• the Trusted Accreditation Organisations (TAO) that accredit the issuers to issue Verifiable Credentials;
• the Issuers of Verifiable Credentials;
• the Holders of Verifiable Credentials (using the wallet);
• the Verifiers of Verifiable Credentials

The VC lifecycle aims at providing an easy way for stakeholders to:

• navigate through the different steps and requirements in order to understand what they need to do to be able to exchange Verifiable Credentials;
• find the detailed specifications;
• find a common way to describe their own scenario(s) and specifications to stimulate the reuse and interoperability.

The generic design of the VC lifecycle is based on the W3C specifications and allows it to be used in many contexts and use cases, such as different types of credentials for identity or educational credentials.

The three fundamental steps of the lifecycle can be found hereunder, each box in the diagram displaying a link icon () is clickable and will lead you the specific user story.