Trust (or not) but verify: Infosys uses Hyperledger Indy and ACA-Py to create fast, secure, and private credential verification

With seemingly endless access to information, it should be easy for a company to verify someone has the credentials they say they have, shouldn’t it? 

In some cases, it is. Many universities and educational institutions have verification portals. Or they have a process to request verification. But not all do. 

And, if there’s no easy way to confirm a degree or certification, how can you tell if it’s legitimate? 

Even with complete trust in the source's legitimacy, verification may not be easy. 

For example, Infosys is a global leader and consultant for next-generation digital services. The company also 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.

“The core challenges we set out to tackle revolved around elevating trust, fortifying security, eliminating fraud, and establishing an immutable framework for verifying learning achievements within Lex,” said Ashima Seth, Principal Blockchain Consultant at Infosys. 

Infosys also wanted to put control over credential sharing into the hands of its employees. 

The company knew if they could create a system that worked for them, it would work for other educational platforms, too. 

It also knew the solution would be blockchain based. The immutable nature of blockchain would ensure credentials couldn't be altered once issued, while its decentralized structure would enable privacy-preserving verification without requiring constant access to a central authority. Most importantly, blockchain's cryptographic foundations would allow for secure credential issuance and trustworthy verification without compromising user privacy.

Blockchain itself was a mature technology when Infosys first started considering these changes. Unfortunately, Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) frameworks were not. And Infosys needed one to build the solution they envisioned. 

So they waited. 

Finally, SSI matured enough to make their solution a reality. And Infosys was more than ready to use it.

Identify the necessary technology

Lex already stored digital information about employees and their completed coursework. But it wasn’t robust or secure enough to qualify as proof for trusted verification. 

As a first step, 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. 

VCs would meet the solution goals of elevating trust, fortifying security, mitigating fraud, and establishing an immutable framework. 

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. 

SSI has been a highly anticipated use for distributed ledger technology since blockchain’s inception. The technology took time to develop but is now ready to implement in specific solutions.  

With the technology identified, Infosys needed to choose platforms and frameworks that could seamlessly integrate them. 

Bringing the solution together with Hyperledger Indy and ACA-Py

“We wanted our solution to be based on open-source technologies,” said Seth.

One of the most mature open-source SSI frameworks is Hyperledger Indy, a project of LF Decentralized Trust. It provides a distributed ledger technology (DLT) framework for decentralized identity management. 

Two key features of the framework are: 

• Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs): These unique and verifiable identifiers allow users to prove who they are without sharing private information. Individuals control what they share with whom, and no one else can change their information. 
• Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs): This cryptographic layer between the individual and the verifier can hide information about credentials while still proving it knows the information. 

Hyperledger Indy also supports the necessary Verifiable Credential digital assets. 

Now Infosys needed something to manage the communication protocols between the parties and the ledger. It chose ACA-Py, which also provides APIs to build user-facing applications. ACA-Py is an agent technology developed by the Hyperledger Aries community and now hosted by the OpenWallet Foundation. 

“Hyperledger Indy is a distributed ledger purpose-built for decentralized identity,” explained Seth. “These identities are interoperable across administrative domains, applications, and organizational silos, so we chose this as our framework.”  

Once Infosys selected Hyperledger Indy and ACA-Py it began building its new blockchain-based credentialing system. 

Now 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.

For employees, this isn’t that different from the old system. For them, the notable change happens when they open their digital wallet. 

Rolling out the solution to employees

Employees automatically see new Lex Badges in their wallets. And that’s just the beginning. 

Infosys carefully designed the wallet to be user-friendly and full of valuable features.

Employees can:

• Log in with their existing login credentials for authentication
• Choose which specific credentials or parts of credentials to share
• Back up their wallet to a personal Google Drive, which allows them to recover their wallet if their device is lost or damaged. 
• Generate links to a public-facing verification portal. Employees can post these links across platforms, like LinkedIn, to share their achievements and allow colleagues, clients, and potential employers to verify the credentials.  

In the first three months following the platform’s release, over 3,000 Infosys employees used the solution. And that number has continued to grow, as has the positive feedback. 

It’s particularly popular among younger, digital-native employees, but they’re not the only ones who appreciate the easy access and ownership over their data. 

Other employees, managers, and clients appreciate the new system, too. Faster verification improves efficiency, and the secure, blockchain-based ledger increases trust. 

Infosys will continue adding user-friendly features for its employees. Future versions might include features like job matching based on skills, suggested courses based on career goals, and improved integration with professional networking sites.

But it’s also looking to do more. 

What's next/future steps

“Through Wingspan, our learning management platform offering for external customers such as clients and partners, we can extend the reach of our solution beyond our internal LEX platform, which is specifically designed for our employees. By doing so we can take this solution to partner universities and training platforms to get the most benefit for all stakeholders--individuals, companies, and their clients," says Nishant Singh, Blockchain Consultant at Infosys. 

Revolutionizing how educational institutions issue verifiable credentials is just the beginning. 

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.

Infosys also sees a future in industry-specific consortiums. “Imagine a network where multiple companies in an industry participate in a shared, secure credential verification system. This would simplify employee transitions between companies and eliminate costly, redundant verifications,” says Singh.

“Financial services were early adopters of blockchain technology. Now we’re seeing more industries explore its benefits,” he added. He concludes, “As the blockchain credentialing ecosystem grows, Infosys is committed to helping other industries achieve the same success we’ve seen with our Lex platform.”

Infosys LEX Verifiable Credentials – Wallet Sample Interface