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Dock Certs Issuer Guide

By
Dock
Updated on
September 18, 2023

This step-by-step guide will show you how to create issuer profiles and issue Verifiable Credentials. Each issuer profile is made with a decentralized identifier (DID) which is a globally unique digital identifier.

Issuer Profiles (DIDs)

Create a DID

1. Go to Dock Certs to create an account or sign in with Web3 ID, GitHub, or Google.

The first step to creating a decentralized identifier is to set up a Dock Certs account

2. If you’re just getting familiar with the platform, you can use Test mode on the top right.

Use the digital credential platform in test mode

3. To create your issuer profiles, select Issuer Profiles on the left side menu and then click Create Issuer Profile.

Create an issuer profile on the digital credential platform

4. Fill in the details and you can leave the Key Type to the default setting “ed25519.” Then select Create a DID.

Fill in the details for your decentralized identifier

5. Your issuer profile is now created and all of your profiles (DIDs) will be listed on this page.

All of your issuer profiles (decentralized identifiers) will be displayed

Edit an Issuer Profile

1. Click on Issuer Profiles in the menu, click on the three dots of the DID you want to edit, and select Update DID.

Update a decentralized identifier

2. Update the details and select Update DID.

Update the decentralized identifier details

Export a DID

1. Click on Issuer Profiles in the menu, click on the three dots of the DID you want to export, and select Export DID.

Export a decentralized identifier

2. You can export your DID to a wallet or another platform. Create a password to encrypt the file and select Export.

Confirm the decentralized identifier export

Delete a DID

1. Click on Issuer Profiles in the menu, click on the three dots of the DID you want to delete, and select Delete DID.

Select "Delete DID" to remove a decentralized identifier

2. Select Delete.

Confirm deleting the decentralized identifier

Credentials

Issue Credentials

1. In the Credentials menu, click Issue credentials. Select the credential format you want to use.

2. Select the credential template. You can click on Preview to see what details are on the template.

3. You need to have at least one issuer profile (DID) created before you can issue a credential. If you haven’t created at least one yet, you will be prompted to make an issuer profile before you can select the credential format. 

Create an issuer profile if you don't have one in order to issue a digital credential.

4. If you don’t want to customize the credential, select Continue Without Design on the top right. If you want to customize your design, click here for the steps on how to do so.

Continue making a Verifiable Credential without a design

5. Select which Issuer Profile (DID) you want to use to issue the credentials.

Verifiable Credential options

You have the options to: 

  • Persist credential: This option will encrypt the credential by providing a password to access it and store it on Dock’s servers. The credential can be accessed and verified by a URL or QR Code. The recipient can scan the QR Code to import the credential into a wallet app. The credential can be deleted from Dock’s cloud whenever you decide.
  • Generate PDF: If you choose to persist the credentials, the PDFs will contain a QR code the recipient can scan to view and store their credential in their phone wallet app. 
  • Credential revocation: This can make the credential invalid at any time. If you leave this option unchecked, the credential can never be revoked and will always be verifiable.
  • Anchor credentials: This adds a hash of the credentials you issue on the Dock blockchain that can be referenced later to verify when and who created it. 
  • Use Dock BBS+: Allows credential recipients to share specific data rather than show the whole credential to enhance their privacy.

6. If you want to add recipients one by one, select Add Manually.

Add credential recipients manually

7. You can either send the credential by email or directly to their wallet through a DID. To send the credential by email, fill in their email in the Recipient Email field.

8. You can write an optional message to the recipient and select Issue Credentials.

9. Anita scans the QR code with the wallet and receives the credential.

10. To send the credential directly to their Dock Wallet, enter the recipient's preferred DID in the Recipient ID field. For example, if Anita's DID was did:dock:5Dy51pDppyEjC63EyaiR9hw2p3XznQ43D7uBFaLfFhSHmLLD, then that is what you would enter in the field. This way Anita can skip the step of scanning the QR code to import her credential.

Anita immediate receives the credential in her wallet.

11. If you have many credentials to issue, you can issue them in bulk. To do this, select Import Spreadsheet.

12. Download the sample CSV template and fill in all of the details to issue multiple credentials at the same time.

Download the CSV template to add the details of the Verifiable Credentials

13. Once you have added all of the recipients, select Issue Credentials.

14. Once the credential has been issued, it’s important that you download the credentials especially if you didn’t persist them otherwise you can’t get them back.

If you chose to generate a PDF format, this is how your files will appear when you download the credentials:

This is how the JSON file looks when you open it. JSON is used if you want to import this to a wallet or send it to another platform.  A JSON file is a file that stores simple data structures and objects in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format, which is a standard data exchange format.

JSON format of the Verifiable Credential

15. This is an example of how a credential can look:

Verifiable Credential issued on the digital credential platform

16. This is how the credential looks when it is imported into the Dock Wallet:

Credential imported in a digital identity wallet

Revoke Credentials

If you need to make a credential invalid you can revoke it. You can revoke one credential at a time.

1. Select Credentials, the credential(s) you want to revoke to make it invalid, and select Revoke.

Revoke credentials on the digital credential platform

Viewing and Removing Credentials From the Account View

1. Select Credentials from the menu to see the history of credentials issued.

View all the credentials on the digital credential platform

2. If you don’t want to view certain Verifiable Credentials in your account, select the ones you want to remove and click Delete. This does not delete the credentials themselves, it just removes them from the account view.

If the credential is not revocable, then the recipients will still have the credential in their wallet and be able to present it to verifiers because they have full ownership of it. Only credential holders will be able to delete the credential if they chose to.

How to delete credentials

Verify Credentials

1. Select Verification in the menu and click here to follow these steps in this step-by-step verification guide.

Request Missing Data From Credential Holders

Credential issuers can request specific data from holders if they’re missing information to issue a credential such as their last name, email, or date of birth. This functionality makes the issuing process more efficient while ensuring all of the necessary details are up to date before issuing a credential.

In this example, Successo Academy provides an online course for people to learn about Content Marketing. They want to confirm the full name of participants that will be added on the credential and their preferred email address.

1. Successo Academy uses Dock Certs to create a custom credential template called Introduction to Content Marketing.

Select the credential template you want to use.

2. Select Continue without design. If you have a preferred design, you can create one or choose a template. See this guide for how to use the Designer tool.

Continue credential issuance without a design

3. Click Add Manually to enter the credential holder's information.

Click "Add Manually"

4. Here, users can choose which fields are missing and request the information from the credential recipient. In this example, they request their full name and email in order to issue the course completion certificate.

Choose which field is missing information and request the data from the holder.

5. Successo Academy can preview the message before sending it to the holder Anna Ly.

Preview the credential request message.

6. Anna receives the credential request in her email and scans the QR code with the Dock Wallet. She selects the DID she wants to use to submit the information. The QR code can only be scanned once. Anna fills in the missing information and selects Proceed.

The holder submits the missing information.

7. Once Successo Academy receives the information, the credential is automatically issued to Anna.

The credential is automatically issued.

Team Management

You can invite team members to manage credentials more efficiently. The invited team members will be able to perform all of the same functions as the account owner (except for billing) including issuing and revoking credentials.

1. Click on your profile icon and select Team settings.

Click on "Team settings"

2. Enter the emails of the people you want to invite.

Enter the emails of invited team members.

3. The team members accept the invitation in their email. They will sign up for a Dock account if they don’t have one already.

Invitee will receive an email

4. You will be notified by email when someone joins the team.

Email notification when someone joins the team.

5. The invited team member can see the team in the Dock Certs Web App.

The invited team member can see their team.

Developer

API Keys

1. To create your first API key, under the Developer menu item, click API Keys. Then select Create API key.

Developers can use the digital credential platform to create API keys.

2. Your API key is created. Under Whitelisted IP’s, you have the option to add additional security by configuring IP's that are allowed to access your services.

API key is created

3. All of your API keys will be displayed like this:

API key displays

Webhooks Endpoints

1. You can add or modify webhook endpoints that will send events when issuing or when transactions occur. Under Developer, select Webhook and click Add Endpoint on the top right.

Developers can use the digital credential platform to add Webhook endpoints.

2. Fill in the Webhook details and click Create Webhook.

Fill in the Webhook details

3. All of your endpionts will be displayed like this:

How endpoints are displayed

Transaction History

History of issued credentials and API transactions

1. To see a historical list of your used API transactions and issued credentials, click on the Activity menu item.

See a list of API transactions

Issuing Polygon ID Credentials

Create a Polygon ID Issuer Profile

1. Login to Dock Certs and create a Polygon ID profile by clicking on Issuer Profiles and Create Issuer Profile.

2. Add a logo, description (optional), and under DID Type, select polygonid. Then select Create Issuer Profile

Important: If you want to issue a Polygon ID credential, you must have a Polygon ID Issuer profile first.

3. Now you can see the Polygon ID DID issuer profile.

Create a Credential Template

4. Once you’ve created your issuer profile, you need to create a template from Polygon ID schemas. You have the option to import a template. Click on Templates and select Create template

5. Click Import JSON-Schema.

6. For this example, we’ll use this KYC Age Credential.

7. It automatically fills in all of the fields. Once the fields are set up the way you want, click Publish.

8. Now you can see the template.

Issue Credentials

9. Select Credentials and Issue credentials.

10. Select the KYC AgeCredential template.

11. For this example, we’ll continue to issue a credential without a design. Go to this credential designer guide if you want to see how to issue credentials with design templates.

12. Make sure you are issuing from a Polygon ID profile by selecting it under DID Type.

13. Add the details by clicking Add Manually. For more details about all of the issuing features on this page, check out this Issuer Guide.

14. Enter the recipient’s details. If you want to send the credential directly to their wallet, you can request the information by checking the box Request Info. Once all of the details are entered, select Add Recipient.

15. Select Next.

16. Since we are not going to send the recipient an email, select Continue without.

After closing this window, select Yep, I’ve got it

17. The credential hasn’t been issued just yet. It’s a two-step process with Polygon ID to get a credential into the Polygon ID wallet. First, the credential holder will need to authenticate and connect to the issuer by scanning the QR code that we will show you in the next steps. The second step is to claim the credential to get it in the Polygon ID wallet. 

In Credentials, click Requested, and click the Share icon to get the URL to the credential holder. 

18. Copy the link by clicking on the copy icon and you can see the QR code when you open it in your browser. The issuer will send this QR code to the credential holder however they choose.

Credential Holder: How to Get the Credential in Their Polygon ID Wallet

18. If the credential was issued in test mode on Dock, the credential holder has to ensure that their Polygon ID wallet network is set to testnet as well, which is called Polygon Mumbai. If the credential was issued in production mode in Dock, the credential holder has to receive it on the mainnet network, which is called Polygon Main. Holders can switch the network by tapping on the settings icon, the current network name, and choose the network they want.

19. The credential holder uses their Polygon ID Wallet to scan the QR code to get authorized and connect to the issuer. The screen on the right is the phone app screen. Select Connect on the phone app.

20. After you enter the wallet PIN, it will start authenticating.

21. Once you’re authenticated, the QR code changes to a new QR code called Claim Credential. Scan this new QR code, enter the PIN, and the credential will appear in the wallet. 

22. After the Claim Credential QR code is scanned, the holder taps Accept, and enters their PIN to receive the credential in the wallet.

23. The credential is added to the wallet.

Plan & Billing

How to choose or change your plan

1. Click on the Plan & Billing menu item and select which plan you want.

Choose which plan you want for the Verifiable Credentials platform