📌 1. What is the Verana Foundation?

The Verana Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing decentralized digital trust and identity solutions. It develops open technical standards, governance frameworks, and decentralized infrastructure to empower users and organizations to securely interact on the digital web.

📌 2. What does “verifiable trust” mean?

Verifiable trust refers to trust built upon cryptographic verification rather than centralized intermediaries. It involves Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), Verifiable Credentials (VCs), and secure communication channels, enabling direct, secure, peer-to-peer digital interactions without relying on central authorities.

📌 3. What are Verifiable Credentials (VCs)?

Verifiable Credentials are cryptographically secure digital documents issued by a trusted entity (issuer) and verifiable by others without contacting the issuer. They provide secure proof of identity, credentials, and other claims in digital interactions.

📌 4. What is the Verifiable Trust Specification?

The Verifiable Trust Specification defines how decentralized identifiers, verifiable credentials, and secure communication protocols (like DIDComm) come together to create trusted digital interactions. It outlines the technical standards needed to verify identities and services reliably.

📌 5. What is a Verifiable Public Registry (VPR)?

A Verifiable Public Registry is an open “registry of registries” infrastructure. It maintains records of trusted issuers, verifiers, and credential schemas, facilitating the transparent governance and verification of identities, credentials, and services on the decentralized web. The Verana Network is an implementation of a VPR.

📌 6. What are Essential Credential Schemas (ECS)?

Essential Credential Schemas (ECS) are standardized credential definitions provided by the Verana Foundation to ensure interoperability and trust across decentralized identity systems. Examples include Person Credential, Organization Credential, Service Credential, and User Agent Credential.

📌 7. Who governs the Essential Credential Schemas?

The Verana Foundation’s governance framework defines rules for managing Essential Credential Schemas. The Foundation, through its governance authority, selects authorized issuer grantors and issuers to ensure trusted, compliant credential issuance.

📌 8. How can an organization start a Verifiable Service (VS)?

Organizations must obtain an Organization Credential, issue or request a Service Credential, publish these credentials in their DID Document, and ensure credentials are resolvable through a Verifiable Public Registry. This enables secure and trusted interactions with users and other services.

📌 9. What is a Verifiable User Agent (VUA)?

A Verifiable User Agent is software — such as wallets, browsers, secure messaging or social apps — that users rely on to securely manage their credentials, perform trust resolutions, and interact safely with Verifiable Services.

📌 10. How can I participate or contribute to the Verana Foundation’s work?

You can contribute by participating in specification discussions, providing feedback, contributing open-source implementations, joining working groups, or supporting through donations. All contributions help build a trusted, privacy-focused digital ecosystem.

📌 11. When the Verana Network will launch?

Testnet launch date is April 30, 2025. Mainnet is supposed to launch on Q1, 2026.

For further questions or information, please reach out directly to our community channels.