Implementing an Abstraction for Verifiable Credentials and Zero Knowledge Proofs

This is a slide deck prepared with the hope of presenting at Internet Identity Workshop (IIW, October 2024). It reports our progress implementing an abstraction to separate Verifiable Credential formats, policies, etc. from the underlying cryptography libraries that support privacy and accountability by composing different Zero Knowledge Proofs. This abstraction will help to enable different aspects of these complicated systems to evolve relatively independently of each other, this facilitating progress and reducing risk for projects and products that aim to provide strong privacy while ensuring accountability. We have now instantiated the abstraction with two cryptography libraries (DockNetwork crypto and AnonCreds v2) in our internal Haskell prototype and translated the abstraction and to Rust, along with the instantiation over AnonCreds v2. We have also developed a test framework that enables adding and running tests as JSON files, and included a suite of tests as examples. We are making this work public imminently to enable engagement and feedback, particularly from key AnonCreds v2 people, so we can work towards something they can accept as a contribution.