A new developer API, support for SD-JWT/OpenID4VC, and new types of templates in the UI 🚀 A lot has happened, and even more is coming. Let's dive into it!
Paradym has been in open beta for 5 months now 👀. It's been an insane time, and it's been incredibly valuable to experience first hand how builders actually use the platform that we have worked so hard on! Through conversations with the people that are building all kinds of innovative solutions on Paradym's infrastructure, we've encountered a couple of important learnings:
- There's no such thing as too soon when it comes to supporting upcoming EU standards
- Paradym is mostly used by developers, who prefer having more flexibility and control through interacting with an API directly
- The main benefit of the workflow builder is its easy templates, not necessarily the YAML structure
Based on this we're making some changes. As always, let us know what you think in the Paradym Community!
Beyond the builder
You can now issue and verify credentials without the builder! We've released the Paradym API (reference). The API offers clear and straightforward functionality that expands as we add new standards and features. Any developer can now integrate verifiable credentials into their solutions in a familiar way, with full control.
We've talked to many builders within and outside the Paradym Community. Although people see the value of the workflow builder for non-developers, the overwhelming preference was to have access to an API. Some builders were even hacking the system a bit to get the desired result, that's not great UX!
We're recommending new users to start with the API. Combined with the new UI functionality to create credential and presentation templates it's a powerful tool for any use case. We'll also be helping our existing users to explore the API and migrate to it. Our current expectation is that the builder will be deprecated over time, depending on the success of the API.
A new stack: SD-JWT/OpenID4VC/did:web
The new API already supports the issuance and verification of SD-JWT credentials over OpenID4VC. We’ve started working on adding the issuance and verification of AnonCreds over DIDComm (what the workflow builder currently supports) to the API as well. We're not switching stacks, as Paradym's main goal is to offer leading standards as a customizable set of formats and protocols for users to choose from.
The addition of SD-JWT credentials and OpenID4VC is a huge milestone for Paradym! We're following the developments in the EU Architecture Reference Framework closely, and making sure people don't have to wait to be able to start building compliant solutions. Paradym will also become compatible with the EU with revocation and trust frameworks. Read more about the EU digital identity here.
Templates
You can use the API to build full end-to-end applications, but you can also choose to do part of the work in the UI. With the new templates tab, you can create credential templates or presentation templates through simple drop down menu's. These templates can then be used with the API. Currently, the templates support issuance and verification of SD-JWT credentials over OpenID4VC, and will be expanded soon to support AnonCreds over DIDComm.
One of the coolest features in the UI is an added benefit of OpenID4VC Credential Issuance, namely the customization of the appearance of credentials. You can now customize background color, text color, or even add a background image to your credential.
For now the templates are mostly handy inside your ecosystem, but in the future they will be made available through a marketplace to create, share and exchange with other Paradym users.
Migration
These new changes bring some challenges. As Paradym now supports two different sets of standards, in two different areas of our product. This means the docs have been split up into sections. You can find the docs on the workflow builder in a separate section of the docs than the docs on the API and templates manager. To migrate, reach out to us for a one-on-one with one of our team members. Thank you for being on this journey with us, we're looking forward to another exciting chapter of Paradym!
The Paradym team is very proud of this newest release and we hope you will enjoy it. Do you have questions? Ideas? We’d love to hear them in the Paradym Community Slack!