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3. Guiding principles for Gaia-X Technical Compatibility

3.1 Scope

This document specifies technical requirements and recommendations for:

  • the format, encoding and cryptographic binding of verifiable credentials and verifiable presentations;
  • the compatibility criteria and verification methods used to assess Verifiable Credentials, Verifiable Presentations and ecosystem-specific extensions;
  • the technical requirements supporting the application of the Trust Protocol for cross-ecosystem interoperability;
  • the semantic and data-exchange standards referenced by the compatibility criteria, technical recommendations and Proof of Compatibility.

This document is applicable to organizations, software providers and governance authorities implementing, operating or assessing conformity of federated digital trust ecosystems. It does not specify business, contractual or liability rules governing the content of data exchanged between participants.

3.2 Conformance and proof of conformance

Conformance with this specification is determined by satisfying all applicable criteria in the Verifiable Credential compatibility, Verifiable Presentation compatibility and Extension compatibility chapters. Content explicitly identified as non-normative, including diagrams, examples and notes, is informative and does not establish conformance requirements.

Where an artefact satisfies all applicable criteria, conformance is evidenced by a Proof of Compatibility - a cap:Certification expressed using the Conformity Assessment Profile (CAP) ontology and encoded as a signed VC-JWT, as specified in Proof of Compatibility.

3.3 Functional requirements

The technical compatibility baseline specified in this document is guided by the following principles.

3.3.1 Use open and reusable standards

The baseline should rely on standards that are:

  • open;
  • free to use;
  • publicly documented;
  • implementable without proprietary dependencies;
  • compatible with decentralized ecosystems;
  • already widely used or strongly aligned with existing ecosystem adoption.

The goal is to avoid ecosystem lock-in and enable participants to implement Gaia-X-compatible components without dependence on a specific vendor or proprietary implementation.

3.3.2 Enable decentralized ecosystems

The baseline should support decentralized ecosystems where:

  • participants can independently issue, hold, present, and verify credentials;
  • trust can be established without relying on one central technical authority;
  • ecosystem-specific technical requirements can be expressed through extensions;
  • compatibility can be verified automatically.

3.3.3 Align with Gaia-X specifications under the purview of the Technical Committee (TC)

The baseline should prioritise specifications proposed or adopted by organizational entities under the purview of the Gaia-X Technical Committee, especially, but not limited to, working groups (WG) such as the Architecture WG, ICAM WG, Data Exchange WG and Service Characteristics WG. Particular attention should be given to work related to the Gaia-X Trust Framework and the Gaia-X 3.0 Stack, including the extension mechanism.

Where alternative standards can fulfil the same technical function, standards adopted or profiled in Gaia-X Working Group specifications should be considered first.

3.3.4 Maintain a domain-agnostic baseline and support extensions

The technical compatibility baseline should remain domain-agnostic. Geographical, domain-specific and ecosystem-specific extension profiles may define additional technical requirements, provided that these remain compatible with and do not redefine the core baseline. This allows ecosystems to introduce additional technical constraints or capabilities while preserving conformance with the applicable Gaia-X technical compatibility baseline.

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