Verifiable Credentials

Learn about the W3C data model that powers immutable workforce records.

What is a VC?

A Verifiable Credential (VC) is a tamper-evident credential that has authorship that can be cryptographically verified. In the context of People Index, VCs are used for employment trust scoring, academic degrees, and professional certifications.

The Credential Payload

When you fetch an assessed record via our API, you will receive a standard JSON-LD payload that looks like this:

credential-payload.json

{
  "@context": ["https://www.w3.org/2018/credentials/v1"],
  "id": "http://peopleindex.ai/credentials/3732",
  "type": ["VerifiableCredential", "EmploymentCredential"],
  "issuer": "did:web:acmecorp.com",
  "issuanceDate": "2026-01-01T19:23:24Z",
  "credentialSubject": {
    "id": "did:web:peopleindex.ai:user:892",
    "jobTitle": "Senior Product Manager",
    "employmentStatus": "ACTIVE"
  },
  "proof": {
    "type": "Ed25519Signature2020",
    "created": "2026-01-01T19:23:24Z",
    "proofPurpose": "assertionMethod",
    "verificationMethod": "did:web:acmecorp.com#keys-1",
    "jws": "eyJhbGciOiJFZERTQSIsImI2NCI6ZmFsc2UsImNyaXQiOlsiYjY0Il19..."
  }
}

Credential Schemas

People Index strictly enforces standard schemas to ensure compatibility across all integrated HRMS platforms. If your Workday instance tries to issue a credential that does not match the EmploymentCredential schema, the API will reject it with a 400 error.