POSE: Phase II: Credentialing for Open Source Ecosystems (COSE): Ensuring Testable Interoperability

在生活中的重要事件中，人们会出示驾照、永久居民卡或学位等证件。然而，自2019冠状病毒病大流行以来，建立非接触式、可信赖的互动的需求增加了。这场大流行放大了提高社会能力的必要性，使其能够参与我们习惯于面对面、在线进行的那种值得信赖的互动。美国联邦政府一直在通过美国国土安全部的硅谷创新计划（SVIP）和美国教育部开展的类似计划，为这一领域的数字认证计划提供资金。虽然web标准创造了互操作性的可能性，但它们并不能确保可演示的互操作性。这个NSF项目的资助目的是确保可验证的认证生态系统具有底层的开源基础设施，以促进更广泛的互操作性。这些努力使安全可靠的开放技术能够在市场上获得采用，而不是专有或封闭的解决方案，从而降低了美国联邦政府和整个社会获取这些技术的成本。这个NSF项目建立在万维网联盟正在进行的工作（如可验证凭据、分散标识符、数字钱包和凭据请求/响应协议）的基础上。当采用基于标准的数字认证方法时，重点是升级一组战略计划好的开源测试库、测试套件和有组织的互操作性仪表板，作为决策者和开发人员的基础设施。这个基础设施由Linux基金会的一个开放遵从性计划来支持，该计划将持续测试开源实现，并为开源生态系统的持续运营创造收入。这些努力将有助于建立一个开放的数字证书软件市场，为普通公民提供安全、可靠的数字证书访问途径。美国联邦政府将受益于市场上更广泛的供应商，并能够更准确地确定每个供应商支持的标准一致性水平，这将有助于打击数字认证领域的供应商锁定、价格欺诈和虚假广告。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

People present credentials such as driver’s licenses, permanent resident cards, or degrees during important events in their lives. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for establishing touchless, trustworthy interactions has increased. The pandemic amplified the need to improve society's ability to engage in the same sort of trustworthy interactions we are used to in person, online. The US Federal Government has been funding digital credentialing initiatives in this space through the US Department of Homeland Security's Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) and similar initiatives undertaken by the US Department of Education. While web standards create the possibility of interoperability, they do not ensure demonstrable interoperability. This NSF project is being funded to ensure that the verifiable credentialing ecosystem has the underlying open source infrastructure to facilitate the broader interoperability effort. These efforts enable secure and reliable open technologies to gain adoption in the market over proprietary or closed solutions, lowering the cost of acquisition of these technologies to US Federal Government and society at large. This NSF project builds on ongoing work through the World Wide Web Consortium (such as the Verifiable Credentials, Decentralized Identifiers, Digital Wallet, and Credential Request/Response protocols). The focus is on upgrading a strategically planned set of open-source test libraries, test suites, and an organized interoperability dashboard as foundational infrastructure for decision makers and developers when adopting standards-based digital credentialing approaches. This infrastructure is bolstered by an open compliance program through the Linux Foundation which will both continuously test the open source implementations and generate revenue for continued operation of the open source ecosystem. These efforts will help foster an open-market of digital credentialing software that provides the average citizen with secure, reliable access to their digital credentials. The US Federal Government will benefit from a broader set of vendors in the market and by being able to more accurately determine the level of standards conformance supported by each vendor, which will help combat vendor-lock in, price gouging, and false advertising in the digital credentialing space.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.