Key Challenges in Credential Verification Innovation

Velocity Network was designed to address the following key challenges unique to credential verification in the context of proof of qualifications:

Trust and Rigorous Verification Methods

From a relying party’s standpoint, verifying the career and education credentials of individuals is not only needed to supports various business processes management but also holds significant implications for regulatory compliance, particularly in relation to the negligent hiring doctrine.

The recognition of the negligent hiring doctrine has been widely accepted across global legal systems. Under the negligent hiring doctrine, employers are required to conduct comprehensive verifications of an individual's qualifications using primary source methods. This involves connecting directly with the authoritative entities that can confirm the claims related to the individual's credentials. To provide substantial utility to employers on a larger scale, Velocity Network must enable verification processes that are on par with the accuracy and reliability of primary source methods. These include verifying that the credential was issued by a trusted source, and that this source has the authority to assert the claims included in the credentials. It also includes ensuring its integrity remains intact from the moment it leaves the issuer's systems, as well as validating that the credential has not been revoked by the issuer for any reason. Moreover, the relying party must be certain that the credential accurately attests to the identity of the individual presenting it (personbound). These essential functionalities ensure the utmost trust and credibility in the verification process, establishing a robust and seamless system for all stakeholders involved.

Global Interoperability

Today’s trends of portfolio careers, lifelong learning, global workforce mobility, and remote hiring require individuals to curate credentials and certifications from multiple sources—education, training, licensing, employment, skills, etc.—across various geographies to prove their qualifications. Furthermore, for these credentials to have utility value, individuals must be able to universally share their credentials with any relying party, across borders and industries, without restrictions or limitations. The relying party must also be able to process, verify, and understand them.

The fragmented and global nature of the education ecosystem and the job market makes this interoperability a monumental challenge. It requires aligning technical aspects, user experience, global data syntax, a global semantic layer, and global compliance.

Global Compliance

With 75% of the world’s population that will have its personal data covered under modern privacy regulations by year-end. Compliance with modern privacy regulations plays a critical role in achieving global interoperability. Relying parties situated in jurisdictions governed by modern privacy regulations will consider engaging with an such Infrastructure only if it is complying with regulations in their jurisdiction.

A Utility Layer that No Single Entity Controls, Yet Anyone Can Use

A global infrastructure for exchanging reliable career-related data will inevitably become a monopoly, posing significant risks to all job market stakeholders, including both the workforce and businesses.

To mitigate these concerns, such infrastructure must be built on open-source technology and remain independent of any single entity's control. It should be accessible to all, free from centralized governance, and instead governed by the broad global community that benefits from its use. This approach ensures transparency and inclusivity, fostering a collaborative and sustainable environment for all stakeholders.

Authentication

The modern internet has made it increasingly challenging to establish trust with others online, leading to issues such as spam, fraud, abuse, and misinformation.

In order to establish the critical trust needed to support the utility of such infrastructure, all data transactions supported by the infrastructure must include authentication methods that produces rigorous proof required to confirm the identity of the parties involved in the communication and to validate the information being transferred. Individuals must be able to trust that the Issuer they claim their credentials from or the relying party they share their private information with are genuinely the entity they claim to be.