OpenID4VCI

OpenID4VCI is the OpenID protocol wallets use to request and receive digital credentials from an issuer, used in the EUDI Wallet.

OpenID4VCI (OpenID for Verifiable Credential Issuance) is the issuance half of the OpenID4VC family: an open protocol, built on OAuth 2.0, that standardises how a wallet requests and receives a digital credential from an issuer. It defines the messages exchanged - a credential offer, an authorization or pre-authorized code flow, a token request, and a call to the credential endpoint - so that any conforming wallet can obtain credentials from any conforming issuer without custom integration.

A key part of the flow is proof of possession: the wallet demonstrates control of the private key that will be cryptographically bound to the issued credential, so the credential cannot later be used by someone else. The protocol is format-agnostic, issuing credentials as SD-JWT, mdoc or other encodings, and underpins how the EUDI Wallet obtains PID and other attestations from issuers under the ARF.