Verifiable Credentials Specification Map

A mapping of some of the core verifiable credential specifications and the dependencies and references of those specifications.

There are many specification type documents related to verifiable credentials. These specifications depend upon or sometimes simply reference one another. The result is a complex and large interconnected web of specifications that can be daunting to traverse and study. This map, in being able to quickly see the relationship and dependencies, helps the reader understand and traverse the relationships.

There is a video introducing the map video from time 00:30:00 to 00:50:00. This video was before the map was converted to a data driven kumu rendering but other than the look of the map the rest of the introduction is valid.

Corrections welcome. This is a work in progress. Contribute via filing of issues or a PR.

Release

The current map is released in 3 formats.

• kumu.io at https://www.kumu.io/michaelruminer/vc-spec-map
• JPEG (.jfif)
• PDF

The current kumu.io map is in a personal workspace. This is likely only an interim home and will be moved in the future. Watch this README for changes.

Releases prior to v1.2.0 did not use kumu.io and instead used a diagrams.net/draw.io manually drawn map.

Using and Navigating Kumu

A few notes for people that may not be familiar with the Kumu mapping tool. Kumu creates auto-generated maps driven from two tables of data- elements and connections. It provides extensive individual user control over how the diagram/map is formatted and presented including use of a JSON style definition to control the output. The contributors of the map can create default maps and views.

• The bottom right corner of the map contains easy filtering buttons to allow for show/hide of each specification element type (core, non-core, and intermediate) as well as for each of the connection types.

• One simple mechanic that is helpful for non-mobile browser users is to hover the pointer over a node and it will cause that node and nodes it is connected to to stay visible and will fade out all the other nodes. This is very valuable in such a large and complex map.

• For all browser environments the search feature in such a large map is critical to navigate to a desired node.

• You can see the table of data and perform column sorts by right clicking the table icon in the lower right.

  • When in the table you can click the filter button in the upper right to change the table between elements and connections.
  • Using the elements table to see a list of which specifications are in the diagram is extremely useful. You will likely wish to sort by the label column.

• When you have selected an element in the map the hamburger style menu indicator on the left side of the map can be clicked to toggle the expansion of an information panel that will show the following data for the specification represented by the map element. For more information on the field see the project wiki page How to Populate CSV Files with Elements and Connections

  • Document Type
  • Maturity
  • Repo URL
  • Spec Last Reviewed Date
  • Title
  • URL
  • Any tags
  • The Element Type
  • Description

Contributing

See this project's wiki for information on how changes to the map can be created through the CSV data files that are part of the repo. You can test the map output of any proposed changes by following the Deploy to Kumu directions, also in the wiki, in a personal Kumu workspace.