10 Use Cases for Verifiable Credentials

If you’ve recently started looking into verifiable credentials and their benefits, the concept might sound a bit abstract.

After all, VCs are not widely used just yet.

But there are many concrete areas where verifiable credentials can help.

Let’s look at some possible applications of verifiable credentials, study a few real-world examples, and discuss how you can start thinking about VCs in your own business.

10 potential use cases for verifiable credentials

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of ways companies can use verifiable credentials.

1. Age verification with zero-knowledge proofs

If you’re selling age-restricted products, you’ll need to confirm that someone is above a certain age. The trick is to do this without forcing them to expose their full birthday details.

Verifiable credentials let users prove a binary “yes/no” response to an age check without disclosing more data than absolutely necessary.

This is a great way to reduce friction at checkout, comply with privacy regulations, and build customer trust.

2. Customer onboarding / KYC

Companies and agencies often have to verify identity for compliance and KYC purposes. Think banks, travel agents, or government institutions.

This might mean dealing with passport scans, selfie verification, document uploads, and lengthy manual reviews.

With verifiable credentials from a trusted issuer (e.g. government), customers can skip the entire process. This can dramatically speed up your onboarding process and lead to fewer drop-offs while still complying with regulations.

3. Internal staff IDs & access management

Managing internal IDs and access for employees or contractors can be a hassle, especially if your company has multiple locations and tools.

With a verifiable credential, a single digital “badge” can prove an employee’s status, job role, access levels, etc. This lets them unlock offices, use SaaS tools, or log into HR systems without needing multiple separate IDs or access cards.

This makes things faster and easier for everyone involved without sacrificing security.

4. Anti-fraud measures

Digital fraud is a growing problem.

Classic measures like emailed OTPs or weak identity questions simply don’t cut it anymore. This risk is especially pressing where potential breaches might expose personal or otherwise sensitive data.

Verifiable credentials give businesses a tamper-proof way to confirm a user’s identity and prevent unauthorized access.

This protects your sensitive data and your customers’ personal details without the need for over-engineered fraud monitoring processes.

5. Regulatory compliance & evidence trails

In regulated sectors like travel, healthcare, insurance, and so on, businesses must be able to prove that customers meet certain criteria like vaccination status, entry visa, etc.

With VCs, each aspect can be stored separately and combined to create an evidence trail for any external auditors. As a result, companies can stay compliant without compromising the user experience.

6. Paperless diplomas & digital certifications

Traditional diplomas and certificates feel rather outdated nowadays.

They’re also easy to misplace and more open to being forged.

Verifiable credentials issued by a trusted university or certification authority are a better, more modern alternative. They can let graduates instantly share tamper-proof university degrees or other qualifications. This can help speed up hiring and admissions processes while cutting down on manual labor and paperwork.

7. Government & public sector

Many EU governments and public institutions are already rolling out wallets that citizens can use to file taxes, fill prescriptions, renew licenses, and more. All of this can be done using the same underlying credentials.

VCs make such processes more secure and streamlined while reducing admin costs and risks of error.

8. Patient records

People’s medical records are extremely sensitive, yet they can be shared via outdated, insecure systems.

Verifiable credentials let patients prove eligibility for certain procedures or selectively share their health data without granting verifiers blanket access to every detail.

This is a good way for hospitals, pharmacies, insurance providers, and others to reduce paperwork and admin bottlenecks while respecting patient confidentiality.

9. Address sharing with zero-knowledge proofs

Verifiable credentials allow users to share their address without additional details. So instead of uploading utility bills or real estate documents, someone can use VCs to confirm their residency without revealing the exact address, unless it’s absolutely necessary.

10. Travel

Travelers must frequently present things like identity documents, visas, ticket purchases, vaccinations, and so on at multiple checkpoints. With verifiable credentials, they can keep all of these in a single digital wallet and present only the strictly necessary details at each step.

This can speed up notoriously lengthy processes like border crossings, customs checks, boarding etc., and create a smooth experience for everyone involved.

Real-world examples of verifiable credentials

Many of the above use cases for verifiable credentials aren’t just hypothetical.

Several ongoing pilot projects and company implementations are starting to make use of VCs in the real world:

1. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) ran a successful proof-of-concept pilot with travelers relying exclusively on digital wallets and credentials for the entire trip.
2. The Nordic-Baltic eID Project (NOBID) is a large-scale pilot focused on using national eID solutions across Nordic and Baltic countries.
3. NEC Corporation deployed digital IDs to 20K employees that utilize facial recognition and Microsoft’s verifiable credentials.
4. Verifiable credentials helped Skype cut the use of fraudulent Japanese numbers by 90% and improve compliance.
5. Mastercard introduced an Identity Attribute Verification service that uses verified credentials for age verification and other proof of identity.

Apart from the above NOBID initiative, the EU Commission is running three other large-scale pilot projects to test the upcoming EU Digital Wallet in relatable real-world scenarios.

VCs are quickly moving from a theoretical concept to practical applications.

Where can you use VCs?

As you can see, there are lots of hypothetical scenarios and real-world examples where verifiable credentials come in handy.

The question now is: How can you start using verifiable credentials in your company or organization? 

Here are a few questions you can ask to spot potential areas where VCs might help:

• Do your customers, partners, or suppliers have to repeatedly share the same identity data with you?
• Are you storing any confidential business data or sensitive data on behalf of your customers?
• Does your current KYC or AML process create friction for customers or unnecessary manual work for your employees?
• Are you especially exposed to fraud or security breaches, and how can VCs help in your case?
• Do you issue or use certificates or identity documents that are difficult or costly to replace?
• What existing or upcoming regulations do you need to comply with?

Asking such questions should help you identify a few low-effort projects where you can test the waters and see if VCs are the right fit.

Want to learn (a lot) more about verifiable credentials? Join us at Criipto Connect 2025!

Our upcoming Criipto Connect conference in Copenhagen is all about verifiable information and its impacts.

So join us on Thursday, November 13, 2025. 

Spend a day with fellow leaders, innovators, and decision-makers to discover what’s next in the evolution of digital identity.

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