Created by Stephen Curran with input from the Hyperledger AnonCreds Maintainers.

Implementation Repositories

Specifications

Web and Wiki Pages

Project Health

Contributions remain slow on the AnonCreds project itself this quarter, but there has been a significant uptake in conversations around the use of ZKP-based verifiable credentials in the AnonCreds and other VC communities. The EU has a requirement to use “unlinkable” (non-correlatable) verifiable credentials with the EUDI Wallets. To now, the plan to meet that requirement has not been to use ZKPs, but instead to issue many instances of each credential and have the holder use each credential just once, or at least, each credential with just one verifier. Each instance is slightly different, and as a result, each verifier gets an unlinkable credential – although the verifiers can correlate the credentials through the issuer. The reasons for the “no to ZKP” has been an additional requirement that each credential be bound to a hardware key held in the holders mobile device – which is not possible with ZKP schemes such as CL Signatures used in AnonCreds v1 or BBS Signatures planned for use in AnonCreds v2. Some well-known cryptographers have weighed in on that approach and presented a paper arguing that the “batch issue” approach is ineffective. As well, they have proposed a new scheme that implements ZKPs using ECDSA hardware-based keys. The folks involved in AnonCreds are part of that discussion, and will see how that might impact the direction of the AnonCreds project.

The AnonCreds Quarterly Activity Dashboard shows the activity on the project repositories from April to June 2024.

Questions/Issues for the TOC

None.

Releases

Overall Activity in the Past Quarter

There have been a couple of PRs to the new AnonCreds v2 Rust repository, including from some new contributors.

Few attendees have been at the recent AnonCreds Working Group meetings.

There have been additional, significant contributions of code in the Hyperledger Labs Agora project – audited cryptographic libraries.

Current Plans

Continued evolution of the AnonCreds Rust library. Contributing to the conversation happening in the broader community about new ways to use ZKPs for achieving unlinkable VCs, and determining how to leverage that work into expanding efforts on AnonCreds, or using the resources of AnonCreds together with those efforts.

Maintainer Diversity

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

Contributor Diversity

LFX Insights seems to suggest there have been contributions in the quarter from at least 8 different organizations. But it is really hard to be sure.

Additional Information