2025-05-28 GATF Meeting Notes - Americas (NAEU)
This TF schedules meetings as needed. Each meeting will be announced on the GSWG mailing list and the #governance-architecture-tf Slack channel.
The meetings (and Zoom links) are available on the ToIP meeting calendar:
LFX Meetings
Zoom Meeting Links / Recordings
Video and Transcript: Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing
Meeting starts 03:14 in when the anti-trust statement is read.
Attendees
@John Phillips - cannot attend
@Neil Thomson
@Drummond Reed
Mikka Elfatih
Agenda Items and Notes (including all relevant links)
Time | Agenda Item | Lead | Notes |
3 min |
| Chairs |
|
2 min | Review of previous action items | Chairs |
|
| Topic #1 |
|
|
| Topic #2 |
|
|
| Topic #3 |
|
|
| Topic #4 |
|
|
5 mins |
| Chairs |
|
Summary of meeting:
Summary of meeting generated by ChatGPT 4 from the transcript, chat messages and Neil Thomson’s notes.
1. Attendees
Neil Thomson (QueryVision)
Drummond Reed
Makki Elfatih (Hkdolts)
2. Key Discussion Highlights
A. GATF Deliverables and Structure
Three new Confluence pages were created by John Phillips to outline draft deliverables:
Government Conformance Lifecycle
Government Requirements for Trust Registry
Government and Cross-Ecosystem Trust.
These deliverables aim to provide a comprehensive governance model addressing trust among independent ecosystems and their key actors: Issuers, Verifiers, and Holders.
B. Inclusion of Holders in Governance Scope
Neil emphasized the need to explicitly define the role of Holders within the governance framework, alongside Issuers and Verifiers. This includes how Holders apply for credentials and prove legitimacy to Verifiers.
Drummond supported this, stressing the importance of Holder Binding and Liveness Detection as crucial aspects of governance, especially to prevent impersonation, theft, or resale of credentials.
Wallet certification emerged as a necessary mechanism to ensure trust in the digital wallet’s ability to perform secure presentation of VCs.
C. Trust Registry Query Protocol (TRQP) and Abstraction Layer
Drummond explained how TRQP provides an abstraction layer to interact with Trust Registries without mandating their internal structure. If a registry can’t natively respond to TRQP queries, a bridge component handles translation.
D. High Assurance Verifiable Identifiers (HAVIDs)
Neil raised concerns about cross-ecosystem incompatibilities in how HAVIDs (High Assurance Verifiable Identifiers) are implemented and (e.g., different assurance mechanisms in Ecosystem A vs B).
Suggested cross-ecosystem governance audits and/or third-party certification as a scalable solution rather than each ecosystem “technically” verifying the other’s identifiers and credentials independently.
E. Logical Models for Governance
Both Neil and Drummond emphasized the need for logical models to represent schema and data structures across implementations, akin to presentation and exchange schemas used in digital wallets and travel profiles.
Drummond described authority statements using a three-part structure: Authority, Assertion, and Entity, forming the basis for TRQL (Trust Registry Query Language), a new spec in development.
3. Issues Raised and Proposed Solutions
Issue | Proposed Solution |
---|---|
Lack of governance focus on Holders | Extend conformance/governance requirements to include Holders, not just Issuers and Verifiers |
Credential misuse (stolen/sold wallets) | Require Wallet Certification and support for Holder Binding/Liveness Detection |
Cross-ecosystem VC and HAVID acceptance | Implement governance-level mutual audits rather than technical verification for each use |
Heterogeneous trust registry systems | Use TRQP bridges to translate and interoperate registry queries |
Legacy system incompatibility (e.g., travel/hospitality backends) | Introduce logical presentation/exchange schemas and bridging layers |
4. Agreements Reached
Holder functionality and governance must be explicitly defined in GATF documents.
Wallet certification is increasingly unavoidable and essential to trust in holder-bound credentials.
Governance must include interoperability protocols (like TRQP) and logical schema views to enable ecosystem interoperability.
Future deliverables will follow the model of the ToIP Issuer Requirements Guide, with documents on Verifiers, Holders, and interaction patterns between all entities.
5. Next Steps
Update the GATF Confluence Wiki to reflect the inclusion of Holder governance and wallet certification concerns.
Draft a Verifier Requirements Document to complement the existing Issuer Requirements Guide.
Define and document the Trust Registry governance requirements, including record formats and exchange semantics.
Continue work on TRQL (Trust Registry Query Language) to support standardized assertion semantics.
Prepare logical models (presentation/exchange schemas) for consistent interpretation of ecosystem data and governance records.
Capture and summarize discussion notes (Neil to post on the Confluence pages following the meeting).
References
Chat notes
00:06:48 Neil Thomson (QueryVision): GATF Deliverable - Government and Cross-Ecosystem Trust
00:33:43 Drummond Reed: TRQL — Trust Registry Query Language