DID (Decentralized Identifier)
A decentralized identifier is a W3C-standard, globally unique identifier controlled by its subject rather than a central registry — resolvable to a DID document containing the public keys and service endpoints needed to verify signatures and interact.
How DIDs work
A DID looks like did:method:identifier — for example did:web:example.com or did:ion:xyz. The method defines how the identifier is created, resolved, and updated: did:web anchors to a domain’s HTTPS infrastructure, ledger-based methods anchor to a blockchain, and peer DIDs exist only between the parties that exchange them. Resolving a DID returns its DID document — public keys, authentication methods, and endpoints.
In the verifiable-credential stack the DID is the glue: issuers sign VCs with keys advertised in their DID document, so any verifier can fetch the document and check the signature without a shared database or a phone-home to the issuer.
Methods you will encounter
Enterprise and EU projects commonly use did:web (simple, domain-anchored) and ledger methods; the Stellar Go CLI implements DID creation and verifiable-credential workflows on Stellar, and EBSI’s trust model resolves issuer DIDs against its registry as part of the trust chain.
Related Standards
- •W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DID) Core 1.0
- •W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model
Further Reading
Products & Services
Need help with this?
We consult and build across all of these domains — tell us what you are working on.