2023 Q3 Hyperledger AnonCreds

Created by Stephen Curran and the Hyperledger AnonCreds Maintainers.

Implementation Repositories

Specifications

Web and Wiki Pages

Project Health

The project continues to make good progress, with the maintainers and contributors completing version 0.1.0 of the AnonCreds Rust implementation and that library being used in downstream applications.

The AnonCreds Quarterly Activity Dashboard shows the activity on the project repositories, with 52 commits by 8 contributors in the quarter. Those counts are much lower than last quarter, reflecting the shift from implementing AnonCreds to using AnonCreds in the downstream implementations, including the various Aries components/frameworks, and applications built on Aries.

NOTE: As of 2023.08.02 only some of the AnonCreds repositories are visible on LFX Insights. The additional repositories are being added.

Questions/Issues for the TOC

None.

Releases

Overall Activity in the Past Quarter

The highlight of the quarter was the completion of the 0.1.0 release of the Hyperledger AnonCreds Rust implementation and its subsequent deployment in the Aries Framework JavaScript Release 0.4.0 code base. Aries Framework JavaScript 0.4.0 is already in use in several production environments, including in Aries Bifold-based apps released through Google Play and the iOS App Store. The Aries Framework JavaScript implementation supports multiple AnonCreds publication platforms beyond Hyperledger Indy, including at least Cheqd.io and Cardano.

Work on embedding the AnonCreds Rust implementation in Aries Cloud Agent Python has stalled, and the maintainers of that library are reorganizing that effort. The maintainers of the Aries VCX implementation recently connected with the AnonCreds maintainers with an offer to help with the AnonCreds implementation to make it easier to consume in the (Rust) Aries VCX code base.

The transition of the Ursa CL Signatures library to the AnonCreds CL Signatures was completed quickly and smoothly, with a number of enhancements and fixes made to the library during the transition. These are the first enhancements to the code base in several years. For example, code optimizations were found that improved the revocation registry generation process by about 50%, and the handling of other revocation processes by about 25%. Bugs in the library were also identified and fixed, and new releases of downstream libraries (including Aries Cloud Agent Python) published in early July (just after the end of the quarter).

Work continued on the v1.0 specification, albeit more slowly with the alignment with the AnonCreds Rust 0.1.0 implementation complete. At the end of the quarter, Aritra Bhaduri joined the project via the Hyperledger Mentorship Program. Aritra is documenting the cryptographic algorithms in the specification and ensuring alignment with the implementation. Work continued on the v2.0 specification, with a complete “draft” pass completed in meetings and work ready to start on the specification details—minus any decisions on Revocation. What to use for the next generation revocation scheme continues to be a challenge.

Current Plans

Implementation work is focused primarily on the downstream projects that use Hyperledger AnonCreds. Work is continuing on improving the CL Signatures implementation.

On the specifications side, completing the v1.0 specification is focused on the documentation of the cryptographic algorithms used in the processing, as mentioned earlier. As well, work can begin on filling in the details of the AnonCreds v2.0 Specification as a formal document.

Maintainer Diversity

Project Maintainers are from three different organizations: Animo Solutions, BC Gov, and SICPA.

Contributor Diversity

Contributions in the quarter have come from at least 8 different organizations, including Animo Solutions, Roots ID, 2060.io, Indicio and BC Gov.

Additional Information