Evidence Exchange Protocol Glossary

The following terms are either derived from terminology found in the NIST 800-63A Digital Identity Guidelines or introduced to help reinforce protocol concepts and associated use cases.

Term	Definition
Credential Service Provider (CSP)	A trusted entity that issues verifiable credentials credentials. Either an Issuer of Origination for an Original Document or an Issuer of a Derived Credential. A DDN is an example of a CSP that issues Derived Credential.
Decentralized Digital Notary (DDN)	A trusted third party that enables digital interactions between Holders and Verifiers. As an issuer of digitally verifiable credentials, it creates permanent evidence that an Original Document existed in a certain form at a particular point in time. This role will be especially important to address scalability and the bootstrapping of the decentralized identity ecosystem since many Issuers of Origination may be laggards.
DDN Insurer	An entity (party) in an insurance contract that underwrites insurance risks associated with the activities of a DDN. This includes a willingness to pay compensation for any negligence on the part of the DDN for failure to perform the necessary due-diligence associated with the examination and vetting of Original Documents.
Derived Credential	An issued verifiable credential based on an identity proofing process over Original Documents or other Derived Credentials.
Digital Assertion	A non-physical (digital) form of evidence. Often in the form of a Digital Signature. A CSP may leverage the services of an IPSP and may then require the IPSP to digitally sign the content that is the subject of the assertion.
Original Document	Any issued artifact that satisfies the Original-Document Rule in accordance with principle of evidence law. The original artifact may be in writing or a mechanical, electronic form of publication. Such a document may also be referred to as a Foundational Document.
Identity Evidence	Information or documentation provided by the Holder to support the issuance of an Original Document. Identity evidence may be physical (e.g. a driver license) or Digital Assertion
Identity Instrument	Digital or physical, paper or plastic renderings of some subset of our personal data as defined by the providers of the instruments. The traditional physical object is an identification card. Many physical identity instruments contain public and encoded information about an entity. The encoded information, which is often stored using machine readable technologies like magnetic strips or barcodes, represents another rendering format of an individual’s personal data. Digital identity instruments, pertain to an individual’s personal data in a form that can be processed by a software program.
Identity Proofing	The process by which a CSP collects, validates, and verifies Identity Evidence. This process yields the attestations (claims of confidence) by which a CSP is then able to use to issue a Verifiable Credential. The sole objective of this process is to ensure the Holder of Identity Evidence is who they claim to be with a stated level of certitude.
Identity Proofing Inquiry	The objectives of an identity verification exercise. Some inquiries are focused topics such as address verification while others may be on achievement.
Identity Proofing Service Provider (IPSP)	A remote 3rd party service provider that carries out one or more aspects of an Identity Proofing process.
Issuer of Origination	The entity (business, organization, individual or government) that is the original publisher of an Original Document.
Mobile Field Agents	Location-based service providers that allow agencies to bring their services to remote (rural) customers.
Tier 1 Proofs	A category of foundational credentials (Original Documents) that are often required to prove identity and address during KYC or onboarding processes.
Trust Framework Certification Authority	An entity that adheres to a governance framework for a specific ecosystem and is responsible for overseeing and auditing the Level of Assurance a DDN (Relying Party) has within the ecosystem.
Verifiable Credential	A digital credential that is compliant with the W3C Verifiable Credential Specification.