🎓Guardian Glossary

Term	Definition
W3C Decentralized Identifier	W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) are a new type of identifier that enables verifiable, decentralized digital identity. A DID refers to any subject (e.g., a person, organization, thing, data model, abstract entity, etc.) as determined by the controller of the DID. DIDs are URIs that associate a DID subject with a DID document allowing trustable interactions associated with that subject.
W3C DID Document	A W3C DID Document expresses cryptographic material, verification methods, or services, which provide a set of mechanisms enabling a DID controller to prove control of the DID. Services enable trusted interactions associated with the DID subject.
W3C Verifiable Credential	A W3C Verifiable Credential is a set of tamper-evident claims and metadata that cryptographically prove who issued it.
Credential Issuer	An entity that issues a W3C Verifiable Credential
Credential Holder	An entity in possession of a W3C Verifiable Credential. Note, the Credential Holder does not have to be the subject of the claims in the W3C Verifiable Credential.
Credential Verifier	An entity that cryptographically and schematically verifies the conformance of a W3C Verifiable Credential with the W3C Verifiable Credential standard.
W3C Verifiable Presentation	A Verifiable Presentation expresses data from one or more verifiable credentials, and is packaged in such a way that the authorship of the data is verifiable. If verifiable credentials are presented directly, they become verifiable presentations. Data formats derived from verifiable credentials that are cryptographically verifiable, but do not of themselves contain verifiable credentials, might also be verifiable presentations.
Policy Workflow Engine	Manages and monitors the state of required policy actions and the required information flow in a policy grouped into a policy workflow, and further determines which are the next policy actions based on the state of a policy workflow. The policy actions may be anything from saving an application form in a document management system to sending a reminder e-mail to users or escalating overdue items to management.
Policy Workflow	The execution of a series of causally connected and deterministic policy actions where the policy workflow or policy action participants are grouped into one or more workgroups that are attached to policy action of a policy workflow.
Policy Action	One or more deterministic policy rules applied to the input of a policy action request producing a an output of the policy action in the form of a state transition.
Policy Workflow Group	A group of entities participating in a policy workflow.
Policy Workflow State Object	A data object associated with a request for a Policy Action within a given Policy Workflow submitted by a participant in the Policy Workflow Group representing the state of the submitted request.
Policy Action Request	Request for the execution a Policy Action on a Policy Workflow State Object within a given Policy Workflow submitted by a participant in the Policy Workflow Group using a Policy State Machine
Policy State Machine	A technical execution framework calculating the state transition of a Policy Workflow State Object based on a Policy Action Request and the relevant Policy Action instance.
Policy State Machine Execution Framework	A set of rules allowing for a deterministic computation of a state transition of a Policy Workflow State Object through a Policy Action within a Policy Workflow