About the Decentralized Identity and Verifiable Credentials category
What belongs in this category
The Decentralized Identity and Verifiable Credentials category covers products that let an issuer, such as a government, university or employer, give a person a digital credential that the person keeps and shares, and that anyone can check without contacting the issuer. Typical entries are identity wallets, platforms for issuing credentials and verification services, built on open standards for verifiable credentials and digital identity documents.
Checking a person's documents and face to establish identity the first time fits Identity Verification (IDV). A product whose credentials are used to sign in to applications can also enter Passwordless Authentication.
Related categories to enter
Each category is judged separately, so you can enter a product in every category that matches what it does, with a separate nomination for each. Tailor each nomination to that category's focus. Entering several related categories gives the product more than one chance to be recognized.
How entries are judged
An independent jury of security practitioners, analysts and CISOs scores each nomination on leadership, innovation and impact. Each nomination competes in its category against organizations of similar size and region, so a mid-sized firm is not ranked against a global enterprise. Your entry package, any sponsorship and public votes do not affect the jury's scores.
Strong entries in this category show:
- Leadership — adoption by issuers and verifiers: credentials issued, wallets in use, governments, universities, employers or industry bodies that rely on the product, standards followed.
- Innovation — a credential problem solved in a new way, such as sharing only the facts a verifier needs, working across countries and schemes, or recovering a lost wallet safely.
- Impact — results for issuers and holders: checks that no longer need a phone call or paper, fraud with fake documents prevented, time saved per verification. Give figures from deployments.
The jury awards Gold, Silver or Bronze, or a Finalist badge, and results are published on this site and announced to the 600,000+ member Cybersecurity Insiders community. Every approved nomination also enters the separate Community Choice award, decided by public votes.
How to enter
A vendor can enter its own product or service, and a PR agency can enter it on a client's behalf. The nomination form has a confidential field for detail that is shared with the judges and not published, such as customer names, deployment figures or roadmap. Deadlines, pricing and entry steps are on the How it Works page.
