W3C Verifiable Credentials 2.0, DIDs, SD-JWT VC, OpenID4VP and the Digital Credentials API: how it relates to agent payment protocols

Steward: W3C (VC Data Model 2.0, DID, Digital Credentials API); IETF OAuth working group (SD-JWT, SD-JWT VC); OpenID Foundation (OpenID4VP)
Status: Mixed; VC 2.0 and DID 1.0 Recommendations, SD-JWT an RFC, SD-JWT VC an IETF draft at the IESG, OpenID4VP 1.0 final, Digital Credentials API a Working Draft
Latest version: VC Data Model 2.0 W3C Recommendation (2025-05-15)
Primary source: Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0 (external link)

What it is

These standards let an issuer sign claims about a subject, let the holder keep them in a wallet, and let a verifier check them later, ideally with only the needed claims shown. Two encodings matter here. The W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model 2.0 became a Recommendation on 2025-05-15, as part of a family of VC 2.0 specifications W3C announced that day. ^{Source [1, 2]} Decentralized identifiers (DIDs) give issuers and holders resolvable identifiers. Core 1.0 has been a Recommendation since 2022-07-19, and DID 1.1 is a Candidate Recommendation Snapshot of 2026-03-05. ^{Source [3, 4]}

The other encoding comes from the IETF. , published as RFC 9901 in November 2025, makes individual JWT claims selectively disclosable and can bind the token to a holder key. ^{Source [5]} SD-JWT VC defines a format on top of it. Its revision draft-ietf-oauth-sd-jwt-vc-19 was posted on 2026-08-31 and sits with the IESG awaiting the area director, so it is not yet an RFC. ^{Source [6]}

Presentation is the last step. (OpenID4VP) 1.0 became a final OpenID Foundation specification on 2025-07-09. ^{Source [7]} The W3C , which lets a website ask the browser to request a credential from a wallet, was a Working Draft dated 2026-09-04 on 2026-10-11. ^{Source [8]}

How it relates to the eight

AP2 v0.2 specifies with VCs. Delegation travels in OpenID4VP transaction_data of type delegate, the is recommended, and carry vct values mandate.checkout.1 and mandate.payment.1, chained with a delegate SD-JWT. AP2 does not reference the VC Data Model or DIDs, so those are the wider family rather than AP2 dependencies. ^{Source [9, 10]}

, the intent layer of Mastercard Agent Pay, uses SD-JWT per RFC 9901 with key-binding chains (typ values sd+jwt, kb-sd-jwt and kb-sd-jwt+kb). Its design notes call it a format and say a future guide may define presentation over OpenID4VP. ^{Source [11, 12]} Outside the eight, Catena’s Commerce Kit v1 uses DIDs and VCs, and its open v2 proposal moves away from VCs toward plain JOSE grants. ^{Source [13, 14]}

Status history

2022-07-19: Core 1.0 becomes a W3C Recommendation. ^{Source [3]}
2025-05-15: VC Data Model 2.0 becomes a W3C Recommendation. ^{Source [1, 2]}
2025-07-09: 1.0 final. ^{Source [7]}
2025-11: published as RFC 9901. ^{Source [5]}
2026-03-05: DID 1.1 Candidate Recommendation Snapshot. ^{Source [4]}
2026-08-31: SD-JWT VC draft revision 19. ^{Source [6]}
2026-09-04: Working Draft. ^{Source [8]}

Relations at a glance

How W3C Verifiable Credentials 2.0, DIDs, SD-JWT VC, OpenID4VP and the Digital Credentials API relates to each protocol
Protocol	Relation	Note
AP2	Embeds	AP2 v0.2 specifies OpenID4VP with SD-JWT VCs for mandates and recommends the Digital Credentials API; it does not reference the VC Data Model or DIDs.
Mastercard Agent Pay	Complements	Verifiable Intent, Agent Pay's intent layer, is built on SD-JWT (RFC 9901) key-binding chains, not on the SD-JWT VC draft or VC 2.0; OpenID4VP presentation is only a possible future guide.

Back to the orbit

Sources

Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0 (external link)W3C. Standard, primary source. Published 2025-05-15. Accessed 2026-10-11.
W3C publishes Verifiable Credentials 2.0 as a W3C Standard (external link)W3C. Announcement, primary source. Published 2025-05-15. Accessed 2026-10-11.
Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0 (external link)W3C. Standard, primary source. Published 2022-07-19. Accessed 2026-10-11.
Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.1 (external link)W3C. Standard, primary source. Published 2026-03-05. Accessed 2026-10-11.
RFC 9901: Selective Disclosure for JSON Web Tokens (external link)IETF (RFC Editor). Standard, primary source. Published 2025-11-01. Accessed 2026-10-11.
SD-JWT-based Verifiable Digital Credentials (SD-JWT VC), draft-ietf-oauth-sd-jwt-vc-19 (external link)IETF OAuth Working Group (Datatracker). Standard, primary source. Published 2026-08-31. Accessed 2026-10-11.
OpenID for Verifiable Presentations 1.0 (external link)OpenID Foundation. Standard, primary source. Published 2025-07-09. Accessed 2026-10-11.
Digital Credentials (external link)W3C. Standard, primary source. Published 2026-09-04. Accessed 2026-10-11.
AP2 Agent Authorization (external link)Google (google-agentic-commerce). Specification, primary source. Published 2026-04-28. Accessed 2026-10-11.
Delegate SD-JWT (draft-gco-oauth-delegate-sd-jwt-00) (external link)IETF Datatracker (individual draft, G. Oliver). Standard, primary source. Published 2026-04-22. Accessed 2026-10-11.
Verifiable Intent: Credential Format Specification, version 0.1-draft (external link)agent-intent (Verifiable Intent Working Group). Specification, primary source. Published 2026-02-18. Accessed 2026-10-11.
Verifiable Intent: Design Rationale (external link)agent-intent (Verifiable Intent Working Group). Specification, primary source. Accessed 2026-10-11.
agentcommercekit/ack: The Agent Commerce Kit (ACK) (external link)Catena Labs (GitHub). Repository, primary source. Published 2025-05-19. Accessed 2026-10-11.
RFC: ACK-ID + ACK-Pay v2 (pull request #179) (external link)Catena Labs (GitHub). Specification, primary source. Published 2026-08-27. Accessed 2026-10-11.