Digital identity has become a foundational element of modern digital economies. As services migrate to fully digital and cross-border environments, identity is no longer limited to simple authentication mechanisms such as usernames, passwords, or centralized identity providers. Instead, the challenge has evolved toward enabling secure, interoperable, privacy-preserving identity and credential exchanges across heterogeneous systems, organizations, and jurisdictions. Addressing this challenge requires not a single technology, but a coherent stack of open standards that work together across communication, credential formats, protocols, and governance.
At the heart of this transformation is the shift from platform-centric identity models to user-centric and decentralized identity architectures. These architectures aim to give individuals and organizations greater control over their identifiers and credentials, while still meeting the operational, regulatory, and security requirements of governments and enterprises. Achieving this balance is only possible through widely adopted, vendor-neutral standards that ensure interoperability at scale.
Secure Messaging as the Foundation: DIDComm
One of the often-overlooked layers in digital identity architectures is secure communication. Identity systems do not operate in isolation; they rely on continuous, structured exchanges between wallets, issuers, verifiers, and other agents. DIDComm Messaging, developed under the Identity Foundation, addresses this need by defining a transport-agnostic, end-to-end encrypted messaging protocol for decentralized identity systems.
DIDComm enables agents identified by Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) to exchange messages securely regardless of the underlying transport, whether HTTP, WebSockets, Bluetooth, or other channels. Beyond basic message delivery, DIDComm supports higher-level application protocols, such as credential issuance, proof requests, and workflow coordination. This makes it a critical building block for complex identity interactions that require confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity without reliance on centralized intermediaries.
OpenID and the Web-Native Credential Layer
While DIDComm excels in agent-to-agent communication, web-based services require protocols that integrate seamlessly with existing authentication and authorization infrastructures. This is where the OpenID family of specifications plays a central role. The OpenID Foundation has extended OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect to support verifiable credentials through two key specifications: OpenID for Verifiable Credential Issuance (OID4VCI) and OpenID for Verifiable Presentations (OID4VP).
OID4VCI standardizes how an issuer delivers verifiable credentials to a digital wallet using familiar OAuth-based flows. It defines clear roles, endpoints, and security requirements that allow credentials to be issued in a way that is compatible with existing identity and access management systems. OID4VP complements this by defining how wallets present credentials to verifiers, generating cryptographically verifiable presentation tokens that can include multiple credentials and proofs.
Together, these protocols provide a web-native interoperability layer that bridges decentralized identity concepts with mainstream digital services. They are rapidly becoming the default choice for large-scale deployments where compatibility with browsers, mobile apps, and enterprise systems is essential.
Credential Formats and Selective Disclosure
Protocols alone are not sufficient without robust credential formats. One of the key requirements in modern identity systems is data minimization, ensuring that only the information strictly necessary for a given interaction is disclosed. Selective disclosure mechanisms are therefore central to privacy-preserving identity.
The SD-JWT VC format, developed within the IETF, addresses this requirement by extending JSON Web Tokens with cryptographic techniques that allow individual claims to be selectively revealed. This enables verifiers to validate specific attributes without accessing the full credential, reducing data exposure and supporting compliance with privacy regulations.
Equally important is the ability to manage credential status and revocation at scale. Emerging standards such as Token Status Lists define efficient mechanisms for checking whether a credential is valid, suspended, or revoked without introducing unnecessary correlation risks. These capabilities are critical for real-world deployments in regulated environments where lifecycle management and auditability are mandatory.
Governance and Trust Frameworks Beyond Technology
Even the most sophisticated technical standards cannot, on their own, establish trust. Digital identity ecosystems require clear rules defining who can issue credentials, under what conditions, and with what level of assurance. They also require mechanisms for accountability, dispute resolution, and policy enforcement.
The Trust Over IP initiative addresses this gap by defining a layered architecture that separates technology from governance. Its governance metamodel provides a structured way to describe policies, roles, and responsibilities in a machine-readable and human-understandable form. This allows ecosystems to scale while maintaining consistency, transparency, and trust across participants.
By aligning technical interoperability with governance frameworks, Trust Over IP enables identity systems that are not only functional, but also legitimate and sustainable over time. This alignment is particularly relevant for public sector, cross-border, and multi-stakeholder ecosystems.
Toward Interoperable and Scalable Identity Infrastructures
Taken together, standards such as DIDComm, OpenID4VCI, OpenID4VP, SD-JWT VC, and Trust Over IP form a coherent trust stack for digital identity. Each layer addresses a specific aspect of the problem, from secure communication and protocol interoperability to credential privacy and ecosystem governance. Their combined adoption is enabling identity infrastructures that are portable, privacy-respecting, and resilient across organizational and geographic boundaries.
For technology providers, governments, and enterprises building next-generation digital services, understanding and integrating this standards stack is no longer optional. It is a strategic requirement for enabling secure digital interactions in an increasingly interconnected world. At SAHEL, we view these technologies not as isolated components, but as part of an evolving infrastructure that will underpin digital trust for decades to come.