July 29, 2025
Last edited: August 11 2025
Author: Andrew Dworschak - Yakoa
Contributor: Alex Tweeddale - cheqd
This document proposes a set of interdependent pull requests (PRs) for the CAWG 1.2 spec. This set of PRs encapsulates functionality for Verifiable Presentations (VPs), Persistent IDs and Delegation (identity hooks), and mDoc Credentials (mDL). These implementations can be found in PR2, PR3, and PR5 respectively.
To accomplish this new functionality, we also propose several PRs restructuring the existing CAWG spec (PR1) and reinterpreting CAWG credentials (PR4).
Each of the sections below describes the PRs, including sections for their dependencies with the other PRs, the list of changes & reasoning for those changes, potential issues and open questions, and example credentials resulting from the PR.
These changes are not yet written in formal spec language, but the idea and implementation should be clear enough to outline the required changes.
Once reviewed and agreed upon as a plan of action, these changes can be written into the formal spec and raised as PRs in line with their interdependencies.
The types of statements that can be made in the existing CAWG spec are limited:
Resulting statement: An identity claims aggregator simultaneously made several statements about a named actor’s identity, while named actor self-certified their role & involvement in a content’s creation.
This statement merits limited trust, has no ability to support downstream actions, and relies on self-certification of many of the key elements like the role of the creator.
With the new additions proposed in this documents, we can make much more powerful statements about identity, augmenting the trust provided by the tamper-proof nature of the identity assertion:
Resulting statement: The photographer and subsequent editor of a piece of content was a single named actor, who has a DMV-certified credential backed by the proven mDL standard.
This statement can still be communicated clearly to a content consumer, but the expression of identity is much more flexible, can evolve with time, and benefits from the trust afforded by parties like the claim generator and other identity standards like mDL.