Micro-credentials in a Minute Episode 16: What's the difference between an Open Badge (OB) and a Verifiable Credential (VC)?
Greetings friends ✨
In service to making the digital badge and micro-credential space more accessible to the broader community, the Micro-credential Multiverse team has launched a series of conversations with industry leaders in the space we’re calling “Micro-credentials in a Minute”.
Each episode of the podcast will be about a minute long and address critical questions on micro-credentials, digital badges, learning pathways, digital wallets, and more!
Introducing Micro-credentials in a Minute
Episode 16: What's the difference between an Open Badge (OB) and a Verifiable Credential (VC)?
Welcome to "Micro-credentials in a Minute," produced by Micro-credential Multiverse.
In this episode, micro-credential and digital badge experts Rob Bajor and Allison Fromm (Proofspace.id) share their insights on the key differences between the two largest digital credentialing standards; Open Badges (OB) and Verifiable Credentials (VC).
Allison explains that OBs are a standard way to share information about skills and accomplishments, but they have the potential to be fraudulent and compromise privacy. On the other hand, VCs provide a means for anyone to independently verify the accuracy of data - without compromising security or privacy. Rob chimes in with some historical context, sharing that OBs were initially created with two variants: a hosted version and a cryptographically signed version. He notes that VCs have carried the torch of the signed credential and that the open badges version three (3.0) effort is now looking to combine the best of both worlds and competition between the two standards is ultimately making the products better.
Tune in to learn more about the differences and similarities between OBs and VCs in digital credentials.
Guests
Learn more about our guests
Transcript
Micro-credentials in a Minute: What's the difference between an Open Badge (OB) and a Verifiable Credential (VC)?
Rob Bajor: Hi, my name is Rob
Allison Fromm: and my name is Allison and we are micro -credential and digital badge experts.
Rob Bajor: Thanks for joining me, Allison. Today we're gonna talk about the difference between an Open Badge, which you may see, punctuated as OB, and a Verifiable Credential, which is punctuated as VC. So what's the difference between an Open Badge and a Verifiable Credential?
Rob Bajor: What do you think, Allison?
Allison Fromm: Open badges are a standard way to share information about skills and accomplishments.
Allison Fromm: Typically the issuer or the school creates a digital image, they host it on their website, and they provide the learner a link.
Allison Fromm: On the one hand, bad actors can sometimes create fraudulent badges fairly easily, and on the other hand, holders give up some privacy as their info has to be available in some kind of a database in order to be verified.
Allison Fromm: In contrast, a verifiable credential is only stored by the holder directly in their own device, usually a smartphone. The verifiable credentials are verifiable because anyone can confirm the accuracy and legitimacy of the data simply by checking the issuer's cryptographic signature
Allison Fromm: Only the issuer's identifying information. Nothing about the holder is stored public.
Allison Fromm: So verifiable credentials or VCs allow credential holders control over their own data, and they provide a means for anyone to easily verify the accuracy of that data without compromising on security or privacy.
Allison Fromm: But I should note there's a strong effort known as open badges version three, which is working to actually represent the open badge standard as verifiable credentials.
Allison Fromm: So having your cake and eating it too.
Rob Bajor: Yeah, I actually remember back when the open badge specification was created, this is like 10 years ago or something like that. There were really two variants of those awards.
Rob Bajor: So the first variant of the award was a hosted version, which is what most people are using right now.
Rob Bajor: But there was also this idea of a signed, a cryptographically signed credential. So I feel like VCs or verifiable credentials have really carried that torch and now, open badges are kind of circling back and looking at the intentions early on in, uh, in the development.
Rob Bajor: So it's good to see both of these standards, both of which being interoperable and portable, uh, being implemented.
Rob Bajor: And it's always good to have a little competition. It, it makes the products better.
Rob Bajor: Thanks for laying that out.
Allison Fromm: Thank you.
Micro-credentials in a Minute
Check out other episodes of Micro-credentials in a Minute
Micro-credentials in a Minute is also available on a variety of podcast platforms including,
If you enjoyed this article, please consider:
🕊 Following me or my new company Micro-credential Multiverse on LinkedIn.
💌 Subscribing to my newsletter on LinkedIn to get these posts delivered conveniently to your inbox.
🌎 Sharing this article with someone in your network.
