Professional credentials have always been self-reported.
That ends here.
Every professional platform — LinkedIn, résumés, CV portals — is built on the honour system. You type your title. You list your employer. You claim your credentials. The platform records what you said, not what is true.
Verak issues cryptographically signed verification labels — tied to your Decentralised Identifier, readable by any AT Protocol client, impossible to purchase or transfer. Not a checkmark. A proof.
The problem
Every professional platform runs on the honour system.
LinkedIn's blue checkmark confirms you own a phone number. A résumé is a document you wrote about yourself. A background check costs hundreds of pounds and takes a week. The entire industry has normalised self-attestation as a proxy for truth.
The process
A three-stage verification process.
No shortcuts.
Verification is not automated. It cannot be purchased. It is earned through a deliberate human review — the same way a professional licensing body works.
Build your Trust Portfolio
Add your career history, education, and credentials to your Verak Passport. Every record is written directly to your Personal Data Server — not our infrastructure. This becomes your evidence base.
Submit for human review
Apply for Verak Verified status. Our team reviews your identity evidence — not an algorithm, not a form submission, not a credit card. We look at what you have built, where you have been, and whether the pieces connect.
Receive a cryptographic label
If approved, we issue a verak-verified label via our self-hosted Ozone instance at labeler.verak.app. The label is signed with our Ed25519 issuer key and attached to your DID. It cannot be transferred. It cannot be purchased. It can be read by any AT Protocol client in the world.
The technology
Why a cryptographic label is different from a checkmark.
A platform checkmark is a UI element. It can be added, removed, restyled, or paywalled by the company that controls the platform. A cryptographic label is a signed data structure — its validity is mathematically verifiable, not platform-dependent.
DID-anchored
Your verification is tied to a Decentralised Identifier (DID) — a cryptographic handle you control, not a username a company assigned you. The DID persists regardless of which platform, app, or network you use.
Protocol-level, not platform-level
The verak-verified label lives in the AT Protocol layer. Any app built on the protocol can read and display it — not just Verak. Your verified status is not locked behind our interface.
Signed, not issued
Labels are cryptographically signed by our Ozone labeler using an Ed25519 key. You cannot forge a Verak label by editing a database record or copying an image. The signature either verifies or it does not.
Non-transferable by design
A Verak label is attached to a specific DID. It cannot be sold, gifted, or inherited. If you were to lose control of your DID, the label becomes invalid — there is no way to separate it from the identity it was issued to.
Beyond identity
Your verified credentials live with you.
Verification is not only about who you are — it is about what you have achieved. Verak supports W3C Verifiable Credentials (VCDM v2.0) and Open Badges 3.0 — the open standards for digital achievement credentials. When an issuer (a university, certification body, or employer) signs a credential and writes it to your Passport, it becomes a tamper-evident proof — stored on your PDS, not theirs.
You can assemble selected credentials into a Verifiable Presentation — a time-limited, signed bundle you share with a specific recipient. A QR code. A link. A proof that verifies against open standards independently of Verak.
The short version: A screenshot of a badge proves nothing. A W3C Verifiable Credential with an issuer signature proves everything — and the verification is something any standard-compliant verifier can check, independently, without asking Verak.
What it means in practice
The verification isn't a promise we make.
It's a proof encoded in the protocol.
For members
- Your verified status is yours permanently — it does not expire when your subscription lapses
- The label is readable by every AT Protocol client on earth, not just Verak
- Credentials stored in your Passport live on your PDS — if Verak disappeared tomorrow, your credentials remain
- You can revoke a Verifiable Presentation at any time by invalidating the link
For recruiters & hiring managers
- Every verak-verified profile has passed a human identity review — the baseline is not self-asserted
- Career records are written to the member's own PDS — they cannot be changed without a new signed record
- W3C credentials link back to an issuer DID — you can verify the credential against the issuer independently
- The signed label is mathematically verifiable. It is not a badge image. It is not a database flag. It is a cryptographic proof.
Your professional reputation deserves better than a text field.
Build your Trust Portfolio. Apply for human review. Earn your cryptographic label.