Terminology and Glossary

These definitions are normative where the specification uses the term.

Term	Meaning
Credential family definition	Versioned metadata that identifies a credential family and its claim schema.
Credential family	Independently released schema and family-specific circuits built on the core.
Claim	Typed statement made by an issuer about a credential subject.
Canonical encoding	Deterministic byte representation used for hashing, signing, and conformance.
Challenge	Application-defined value committed through Proof.challengeHash; only a presentation profile necessarily sources it from a verifier.
Credential subject	Entity described by the claims in a credential.
Credential status	Evidence used to determine whether a credential remains usable.
VC	Canonical issuer-signed credential envelope.
VP	Canonical holder-created presentation envelope.
Direct claim	Typed claim carried directly in the signed credential body.
Claim commitment	Digest carried in the credential body while the opening remains private.
Disclosure	Claim value intentionally exposed in a presentation.
Predicate	Boolean statement proved over a claim without disclosing that claim.
Holder binding	Evidence that the presenting party controls the credential's bound key or secret.
Status binding	Issuer-signed reference binding a credential to status evidence.
Status authority	Entity authorized to make or attest credential-status transitions.
Status registry	State and rules used to publish or evaluate credential status.
Schema	Machine-readable definition of a credential family's claims and constraints.
Issuer	Authority that creates and signs a credential.
Holder	Entity that controls a credential and creates a presentation.
Verifier	Entity that evaluates a credential or presentation under an explicit policy.
DID	Decentralized Identifier resolved to a DID document. DID methods are outside the core.
Proof	Cryptographic evidence evaluated under an explicit verifier policy and context.
Proof context	Domain-separated interpretation selected by the proof verification circuit.
Verification method reference	Non-zero controller contract address and fixed-width method identifier asserted by a proof or binding.
Signer authorization	Scoped decision accepting one exact verification method and key for an issuer or verifier role.
Authorized signer descriptor	Canonical role, method, key, scope, policy, and decision-sequence binding consumed by signer-authorization checks.
Decision sequence	Authenticated logical ordering value for authorization updates; it is not a wall-clock timestamp.
Authorization source	Local application governance or external authority that evaluates policy and produces a signer authorization.
Authority domain commitment	Application-defined commitment binding an authorization authority to the intended network and consumer, and optionally a registry profile.
Verifier authorization request	Request signed by a verifier for a protocol-neutral scope; it is distinct from a holder-signed VP.
Witness	Private or public input supplied to a circuit.
Trusted time	Time evidence accepted from an explicitly configured authority or ledger source.
Prover key	Circuit-specific artifact used to create a zero-knowledge proof.
Verifier key	Circuit-specific artifact used to verify a zero-knowledge proof.
ZKIR	Intermediate representation from which Midnight proving artifacts are produced.
Relying party	Application that acts on a verifier's decision.
Canonical object	Protocol-independent object whose meaning is defined by this specification.
Adapter	Transport, wallet, DID-method, or application integration outside the core.

An adapter MUST NOT reinterpret a canonical object or omit verification required by its owning credential family.