Infrastructure to facilitate payments for verifiable credentials

Website

https://www.symfoni.dev/

We aim to provide one essential piece that is missing for uncommitted parties to engage in SSI with enthusiasm: the ability to get paid for sharing valuable insights (verifiable credentials) will greatly encourage the uptake of SSI.

ProjectID

eSSIF_CFOC_04

Acronym

Symfoni AS

Additional Info

We believe three components are necessary and sufficient for PayVC.- ISSUERS get the means to specify the terms and conditions for a sale and verify that a payment has been executed. - HOLDERS get the means to pay using “programmable money”, drawing on a prepay system, or tapping into an escrow account. More commonly, the holder will be able to forward the bill to a verifier.- VERIFERS, seeking business from qualified holders, get the means to deal with the invoice or draw on a partner to facilitate the payment.To protect privacy, we propose to link payments to the act of issuing (as opposed to presenting or verifying VCs). As a minimum, the plug-ins would need to support debit and credit payments, various pricing and rebates based on urgency and expiry, and proper “invoicing” specifying e.g. VAT. Possibly the plug-ins will need to deal with refunds and the assistance of third parties to settle a transaction on behalf of all parties involved.

Enduser Relevance

We sincerely believe that issuers will be greatly encouraged to engage in this ecosystem if their service is remunerated. We are currently working with several clients (including the Norwegian Business Registry), whose interests are altruistic, but whose speed, energy, and level of engagement increase considerably if the issuing of verifiable credentials is not a drain on their stretched budgets.Verifiable credentials used at the discretion of citizens are immensely more empowering than the extensive exchange of data between issuers (public and private registries) and verifiers (service providers) that underpin most internet services. If this human-centric approach also turns out to be the most profitable approach, we believe the eSSIF-Lab can take a major step toward its vision. Besides, there is nothing wrong with issuers doing well by doing good!