Glossary
Credential terms, defined plainly
This industry uses its words inconsistently, and some of them mean two unrelated things at once. These definitions are written to be read once and settle the question, including where the honest answer is that a term is being oversold.
- Certificate of completion
- A certificate of completion confirms that someone finished a course or programme, without asserting that they were assessed against a standard or reached any particular level of competence.
- Credential ID
- A credential ID is the unique reference that identifies one issued credential, distinguishing it from every other credential the issuer has ever awarded.
- Credential registry
- A credential registry is a central database that records credentials issued by many different organisations, so that a credential can be checked in one place rather than by contacting whoever awarded it.
- Credential verification
- Credential verification is the process of establishing that a credential was genuinely issued by the organisation named on it, to the person named on it, and has not been altered since.
- Digital badge
- A digital badge is a credential presented as a shareable image, with a linked record behind it that says who earned it, what for, and who issued it.
- Digital certificate
- A digital certificate is an electronic document awarded to a person as evidence of an achievement, though the same phrase also names an unrelated piece of internet infrastructure, which is why searches for it return two different subjects.
- Digital credential
- A digital credential is a claim about a person, such as a qualification, a skill, a membership, or an attendance, issued in a form that can be checked electronically rather than taken on trust.
- Digital signature
- A digital signature is a value computed from a document and a private key, which anyone holding the matching public key can use to confirm that the document has not changed since it was signed and that it was signed by the holder of that key.
- Micro-credential
- A micro-credential certifies a single, narrowly defined competence, rather than the broad body of learning a diploma or degree represents.
- National Credential Number
- A National Credential Number is the reference Nigeria's National Credential Verification Service assigns to an academic credential it has verified, and its full name in the founding policy is the National Academic Credential Verification Number.
- Open Badges
- Open Badges is an open technical standard for digital badges, maintained by 1EdTech, which defines a machine-readable structure so that a badge issued by one organisation can be read and checked by software written by another.
- Tamper-evident
- Tamper-evident means that any alteration to a record can be detected, which is a different and more achievable property than preventing the alteration in the first place.
- Verifiable credential
- A verifiable credential is a digital credential that carries its own cryptographic proof, so its authenticity can be confirmed from the credential itself rather than by contacting whoever issued it.
Why a glossary at all
Because the vocabulary is doing real damage. An organisation told it needs verifiable credentials, digital badges, and blockchain-backed certificates has been handed three phrases that overlap, one that means nothing specific, and no way to tell which of them describes the problem it actually has.
Each entry says what the term means, what it does not cover, and where the usual confusion sits. Where our own product is relevant, it is named as such and its limits are stated. A definition that quietly resolves into a sales argument is not a definition.
One term is not here yet: credential revocation. The reason is worth stating plainly rather than leaving as a gap in a list. This platform does not offer revocation, so a credential issued here cannot afterwards be withdrawn or marked as no longer valid. A credential can be removed from search results without being taken down, which is a different thing and does not affect anyone holding the link. If you are checking a credential, that is the limitation to know about.
Credentials that match the words on the page
We issue signed certificates and badges for organisations, and every claim on this site about how they work is one we will walk you through on a live credential.