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- The Aries Architecture is proving out as ledger agnostic implementations are coming out with relatively little effort. For some time, Aries Frameworks have supported pluggable DID resolvers, allowing DIDs to be resolved on any ledger. This quarter, contributors are showing that AnonCreds ZKP-powered verifiable credentials can easily be made ledger agnostic with Aries, with 3 demonstrations implemented using Hyperledger Fabric (see recording of presentation here), cheqd and a simple database (unpublished PoC at this point) as the ledgers. This is a significant evolution as it moves the use of AnonCreds beyond use only with Hyperledger Indy. Expect that by the next report we will have support for this capability in at least one Aries Framework.
- Work in the community has begun on using Overlays Capture Architecture (OCA) to power the on-screen display of credentials. OCA allows a credential issuer to define the semantics of credential attributes, such as language translations for credential attribute labels and help text, what attributes contain personally identifiable information (PII), the data type and encoding of attributes, and the onscreen layout of credentials, including support for issuer icons and background images that can make a digital credential look like a physical credential. This powerful capability is being enabled across Aries frameworks, including in the Aries mobile wallet implementations.
- An Aries "Interopathon" event is planned for the end of August 2022 with a goal of having all Aries implementers verify support for key AIP 2.0 protocols – especially establishing connections.
- Additional repos are being added to the Aries ecosystem to make deployment easier, such as the Aries Mediator Service that enables spinning up a fit-for-purpose Aries mediator based on configured deployment Aries Cloud Agent Python. A similar Aries Endorser Service is in the works for authorizing transactions for writing to Hyperledger Indy network instances.
- Rapid progress on Aries Framework JavaScript continues, with a release (0.2.x) including some AIP 2.0 support, progress on completing AIP 2.0 support (in upcoming release 0.3.x). PRs this quarter added support for credentials in Aries Framework JavaScript for using the W3C VC Data Model (issue in 0.20, presentation in 0.3.0) and an excellent new documentation site https://aries.js.org/.
- Aries Framework Go's evolution continues with updated support for the Sidetree protocol, DIDs, and DIDComm.
- Both the Aries Agent Test Harness (AATH) and especially the Aries Mobile Test Harness continue to evolve. The IDLab presented (recording here – starting at 8:28) on an interesting tool they had developed on top of Aries Agent Test Harness to make it easy for Aries Wallet developers to test their app using the AATH tests.
- Attendance at the regular communities meetings is up across the board.
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