VerificationContract Schema

**Container:** Contract.contractAttributes **Protocol Version:** 2.0 **Semantic Model:** generalised **Use Cases:** Driver licence verification for employment onboarding, identity KYC, bank account verification for payroll, skill certificate verification for job matching, background checks **Tag:** verification contract consent subject PII

Overview

The VerificationContract schema captures the transaction-level metadata for a verification request. It binds the subject (who is being verified), the purpose (why), the consent reference (under what authorization), and the aggregate result (what was the outcome).

Attachment Points

This schema extends beckn:contractAttributes on the core Contract object. The Contract also uses core participants to list the REQUESTER, VERIFIER, and SUBJECT parties.

Design Rationale

• **SubjectReference is minimal**: The subject reference carries only the name and typed

identifiers needed by the verification provider. Full PII exchange happens during init/confirm under consent, not during discovery or select.

• **ConsentReference is external**: The schema references a consent artifact by ID and

mechanism rather than embedding consent terms. This allows integration with external consent management systems (e.g., DigiLocker, Account Aggregator consent framework).

• **aggregateResult at Contract level**: When a contract covers multiple verification

types (e.g., both identity and driving licence), the aggregate result summarizes the overall outcome. Individual verification results are in performanceAttributes.

• **purpose as CodedValue**: Verification purpose affects both regulatory compliance

and provider processing. Making it machine-readable enables automated policy matching.

• **issuedCredentials separates evidence from deliverables**: VerificationPerformance

carries evidence — the provider's internal proof chain (source API response hashes, audit logs, processing records). issuedCredentials on the contract carries the *deliverable*: the signed artifact the Requesting NP receives as portable proof. Keeping these distinct prevents conflating "how we verified it" with "what you can carry and reuse".

• **issuedCredentials is contract-scoped**: Credentials at this level attest to the

aggregate outcome across all verification types in the contract (e.g., a single enterprise KYC bundle VC). Per-check credentials attesting to a single verification type belong in VerificationPerformance. Both levels are optional; implementations may use either, both, or neither depending on whether the network issues portable credentials.

• **url + embeddedCredential dual model**: W3C VCs can be referenced by URL (for

externally hosted credentials where the provider manages persistence) or embedded inline (for cases where URL longevity cannot be guaranteed or the requester wants a self-contained payload). embeddedCredential takes precedence for cryptographic verification when both are present.

• **credentialExpiresAt is distinct from contract expiresAt**: The contract's validity

window reflects when the verification result is considered stale for reliance purposes. The credential's own expiry is an issuer policy on the artifact itself. These may differ — a credential may outlive the contract's reliance period, or vice versa.

Non-Goals

• Individual verification check results (→ VerificationPerformance)
• Per-check credentials attesting to a single verification type (→ VerificationPerformance)
• Pricing and payment (→ core Consideration / Settlement)
• Consent management UI or consent collection (external system)
• Credential storage or wallet management (external system)

Upstream Candidates

• ConsentReference pattern — applicable to any PII-handling contract
• SubjectReference pattern — applicable to any person-centric service
• aggregateResult with status enum — applicable to any multi-check contract
• IssuedCredential pattern — applicable to any service that produces signed portable

artifacts (skill certificates, health licences, background check reports)