Glossary
The words behind a verifiable certificate.
Credentialing has picked up a lot of vocabulary, and most of it is explained by people selling something. These are plain definitions, written the way we'd explain them to an organiser who just wants the certificates out tonight.
23 terms
Standards and formats
Open Badge
An Open Badge is a digital achievement in a shared, machine-readable format, so the same badge can be checked and displayed by software that had nothing to do with issuing it.
Open Badge 3.0
Open Badge 3.0 is the current version of the Open Badges standard, rebuilt on the W3C Verifiable Credentials data model so a badge carries its own cryptographic proof instead of relying on the issuer's server staying online.
Verifiable Credential
A Verifiable Credential is a claim about someone, signed by whoever made it, in a W3C format any verifier can check on its own — without contacting the issuer.
Blockchain Certificate
A blockchain certificate is a digital certificate whose proof of existence is written to a public blockchain, so anyone can confirm it was issued at a given moment and hasn't been altered since.
Types of credential
Digital Credential
A digital credential is any record of an achievement, qualification or membership issued in a form a computer can read and check, rather than as a printed document or a flat file.
Digital Badge
A digital badge is a visual mark of an achievement that carries its own data — who earned it, who issued it, and what it took — inside the badge rather than in a separate record.
Micro-credential
A micro-credential certifies one specific skill or competency rather than a whole programme of study, so it can be earned in hours or weeks instead of years.
E-certificate
An e-certificate is a certificate issued and delivered electronically instead of on paper — at minimum a file, and at best a link anyone can open and check.
Anatomy of a credential
Credential ID
A credential ID is the unique reference for one issued credential, used to look it up, verify it, and tell it apart from every other credential the same issuer has given out.
Credential Expiry
Credential expiry is a date set at issue after which a credential is no longer current — the record stays, but verification reports it as expired rather than valid.
Credential Revocation
Revocation is an issuer withdrawing a credential before its expiry date, because it was issued in error or the holder no longer qualifies for it.
Issuing and verification
Certificate Verification
Certificate verification is confirming that a certificate was really issued by the organisation it names, to the person it names, and hasn't been altered since.
QR Code Verification
QR code verification puts a scannable code on the certificate itself, so anyone holding a copy — printed or digital — can reach the issuer's own record of it in one scan.
Bulk Certificate Generation
Bulk certificate generation produces one personalised certificate per person from a single design and a list of recipients, instead of editing a file once per name.
Inside Verifycate
Template
In Verifycate, a template is the visual design attached to a certificate — the layout, artwork and typography every issued copy is rendered from, edited on a design canvas and versioned every time it's published.
Attribute
In Verifycate, an attribute is a named piece of data — a recipient's name, a course title, a score — whose value gets printed onto each certificate through a placeholder in the template.
Certificate Unlock Form
In Verifycate, a certificate unlock form is a form a recipient must complete before their certificate is released — a survey, feedback or a testimonial — sent to each recipient as a private link.
Certificate Request Form
In Verifycate, a certificate request form is a public application form for people who want your certificate: approved requests are issued, and the applicant's answers become the details printed on the copy.
Certificate Correction Form
In Verifycate, a certificate correction form is how a certificate holder asks for a change to their own issued certificate — a misspelt name, a new job title — for the issuer to approve or reject.
Certificate Recipient
In Verifycate, a certificate recipient is one person on a certificate's list — the record carrying their name, contact details, attribute values and status from import through issue to verification.
Credits
In Verifycate, a credit is the unit used to pay for issuing: putting one certificate into one person's hands costs one credit, whether that's a single issue or a batch of a thousand.
Branded Portal
In Verifycate, the branded portal is the recipient-facing home for an organisation's certificates and forms, dressed in the organisation's own colours, name and domain instead of Verifycate's.
Certificate Journey
In Verifycate, the certificate journey is the tracked path of one certificate from how its recipient arrived, through release and delivery, to whether anyone ever opened, downloaded or verified it.
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