Infosys Boosts Efficiency, Security, and Privacy of Credential Verification with Hyperledger Indy and ACA-Py
Read the full case study here.
Ironically, the more information we have about people, the harder it is to streamline how we verify it. One big challenge is certifying and validating professional credentials. For Infosys, a global leader and consultant for next-generation digital services, that challenge was made all the harder as it provides courses and training to its 300,000+ employees through its online education platform, Lex.
Lex issued electronic “badges” when employees completed a course. The information was predominantly shared within the company, which held the records, but the internal system still had verification problems Infosys wanted to solve.
Lex Badges needed to evolve from a simple electronic record to a true digital asset, or Verifiable Credential (VC). VCs use open standards, are cryptographically signed, and can be verified on a blockchain.
Updating the Lex platform to issue VCs would elevate trust, fortify security, mitigate fraud, and establish an immutable framework. However, to speed up verification and give individuals ownership and control of their data, the solution needed more than VCs.
Infosys wanted a public-facing verification portal. Anyone with the link could confidently verify the credentials tied to the link. A digital wallet would let users access and hold their credentials and create a link.
For this, Infosys needed a framework to manage communication protocols between the users and the blockchain, with APIs to connect user-facing applications.
Finally, to give individuals ownership and complete control over their identities and credential data, Infosys needed a Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) framework. With SSI, personal identity is verified through a decentralized system. Individuals can prove who they are without the risk of leaking personal information.
With the technology identified, Infosys needed to choose platforms and frameworks that could seamlessly integrate them. Building the solution using open source technology was a requirement, so Infosys opted for Hyperledger Indy, a project of LF Decentralized Trust, as the distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform for decentralized identity management. To manage the communication protocols between the parties and the ledger, the choice was ACA-Py, an agent technology initially developed by the Hyperledger Aries community and now hosted by the OpenWallet Foundation.
Once Infosys selected Hyperledger Indy and ACA-Py it began rolling out its new blockchain-based credentialing system. Now, with the new platform, when an employee completes a course or certification on Lex, it automatically generates a verifiable credential using the Hyperledger Indy framework. The credential includes all relevant information and is cryptographically signed by Lex, the trusted issuer. Employees automatically see these new Lex Badges in their digital wallets and can, importantly, can share them efficiently and securely on their own terms.
The LF Decentralized Trust team worked with Infosys on a case study detailing the rollout of the new Lex credentialing platform, including the business and technical drivers, key features, and results to date. The case study also touches on Infosys’ plans to roll out the solution through Wingspan, its learning platform for clients and partners. Potential applications stretch beyond education into verifying safety certifications in the oil and gas industry, tracking equipment operating qualifications in manufacturing, and issuing and validating business licenses in governments.
Read the full case study here.