Create an Attestation

Overview

Attestations are verifiable credentials issued to identities on the SELF network. Parties attest verifiable credentials to other parties to prove claims about them.

Attesting a verifiable credential involves two steps:

1. Bind a credential to a specific identity DID.
2. Issue the credential to the identity DID.

note

Ensure that Keymaster is installed, initialized, and started as described in the Keymaster installation documentation before creating an attestation.

Bind Credential

Binding a credential requires the schema DID of the verifiable credential, the DID of the identity to which the credential will be bound, and the data or "atoms" that compose the credential:

Node.js

const schemaDID =
  "did:test:z252afasgJiXARFGw3B8Mc6DrLBC2thMzjgeUZWQvHcyPVBxAYZw";
const identityDID =
  "did:test:z3v8AuagJiXARFGw3B8Mc6DrLBC2thMzjgeUZWQvHcyPVBxAYZv";

const atoms = {
  firstName: "Paul",
  lastName: "Revere",
  birthDate: "1735-01-01",
};

const attested = await Keymaster.bindCredential(schemaDID, identityDID, {
  credential: atoms,
});

Java

String schemaDID = "did:test:z252afasgJiXARFGw3B8Mc6DrLBC2thMzjgeUZWQvHcyPVBxAYZw";
String identityDID = "did:test:z3v8AuagJiXARFGw3B8Mc6DrLBC2thMzjgeUZWQvHcyPVBxAYZv";

Map<String, Object> atoms = new HashMap<>();
atoms.put("firstName", "Paul");
atoms.put("lastName", "Revere");
atoms.put("birthDate", "1735-01-01");

BindCredentialOptions bindOptions = new BindCredentialOptions();
bindOptions.credential = atoms;

Map<String, Object> attested = keymaster.bindCredential(schemaDID, identityDID, bindOptions);

The next step is to issue the credential to the identity. This will encrypt the verifiable credential to the recevier's DID.

Issue Credential

Node.js

const issued = await Keymaster.issueCredential(attested);

Java

String issuedDid = keymaster.issueCredential(attested);
Map<String, Object> issued = keymaster.getCredential(issuedDid);

The best practice is to display the issued attestation as a QR code. The user can then scan the QR code with their SELF app to receive the attestation.

Example Attestation DID JSON

{
  "atomCount": 8,
  "attestToName": undefined,
  "attestedTo": undefined,
  "attester": undefined,
  "attesterName": undefined,
  "credential": {
    "addressType": "",
    "apartmentUnit": "",
    "city": "New York",
    "country": "USA",
    "effectiveDate": "",
    "postalCode": "12345",
    "stateProvince": "NY",
    "streetAddress": "123 Main Street"
  },
  "credentialSubject": {
    "id": "did:test:z3v8AuabtdhuGRcGEQcJXFRxBV6apCyNvEDeEsLxLe3NzrnaKHG"
  },
  "did": "did:test:z3v8Auab5BmWtX7yrnF49hU8x5Jz7276SkDNmqHLsstVa29PHNs",
  "issuer": "did:test:z3v8AuabtdhuGRcGEQcJXFRxBV6apCyNvEDeEsLxLe3NzrnaKHG",
  "issuerDisplayName": "did:test:z3v8AuabtdhuGRcGEQcJXFRxBV6apCyNvEDeEsLxLe3NzrnaKHG",
  "name": "Address",
  "publicationDate": undefined,
  "publicationResponses": [],
  "published": false,
  "revealed": false,
  "schema": undefined,
  "sensitive": false,
  "signature": {
    "hash": "b73049fc0adedb28463ede3b4baea8ef5911cd746660ca6d3fb5e18d0d12f213",
    "signed": "2026-02-13T06:58:20.403Z",
    "signer": "did:test:z3v8AuabtdhuGRcGEQcJXFRxBV6apCyNvEDeEsLxLe3NzrnaKHG",
    "value": "7e66cc58ef1edeef485a5cfaf9f28683859fb08e03a772a9c14a76eadbdabd546b3237a350003046c5d0274d8f254719fc222e1d2d7de647f45d205001acddb0"
  },
  "templateDid": "did:test:z3v8AuaVKoFaHL8LQp8eDyLP4sWCmfEmYRavUwe8CjbTUF4BMoS",
  "type": [
    "VerifiableCredential",
    "did:test:z3v8AuaVKoFaHL8LQp8eDyLP4sWCmfEmYRavUwe8CjbTUF4BMoS"
  ],
  "validFrom": "2026-02-13T06:58:20.204Z",
  "validUntil": "",
  "version": 1
}