Trust Spanning Protocol

Protocolo de Identidad

Specification for the protocol at the center of the ToIP hourglass model — the "trust spanning" layer (Layer 2) intended to be "to digital trust what IP is to digital data." Facilitates secure, message-based communication between endpoints with potentially different identifier types (W3C DIDs, KERI AIDs, URNs, etc.), as long as those identifiers are based on public-key cryptography with a verifiable trust root. Provides three core properties: authenticity (mandatory), confidentiality (optional), and metadata privacy (optional, against correlation attacks). Verifiable identifiers (VIDs) form authentic relationships via TSP messages serving as virtual trust channels

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Detalles

Licencia Spec: open under ToIP IPR framework; Rust open-source reference implementation hosted at OpenWallet Foundation (sponsored by Futurewei, Gen, Accenture); Python implementation by Sam Smith / Web of Trust community
Estado de Desarrollo 📝 Borrador
Detalle del Estado de Desarrollo Implementers Draft — vs1.0 Experimental Rev 2; first official version target 1.0.0 upon spec release
Propietario Trust Over IP Foundation (project of Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust); developed by the Trust Spanning Protocol Task Force (TSPTF) within the Technology Stack Working Group
Órgano de Gobierno ToIP / LF Decentralized Trust (Trust Spanning Protocol Task Force, within the Technology Stack Working Group)
País International (Linux Foundation; global membership)
Año de Inicio 2023
Stack Specification only; reference implementations in Rust (Futurewei/Gen/Accenture-sponsored implementation at OpenWallet Foundation) and Python (Web of Trust GitHub community); CESR (Composable Event Streaming Representation) proposed as encoding format
Financiamiento Trust Over IP Foundation member contributions; reference implementation funded by OpenWallet Foundation Premier members (Futurewei, Gen, Accenture)
Última Investigación 1 jul 2026

Dominios de Caso de Uso

Identidad y Confianza

Protocolo de Identidad Atributos

Orígenes ToIP TSPTF — design synthesized from four overall proposals submitted by Sam Smith, Daniel Hardman, Wenjing Chu, Michael Herman (early 2023)
Base de Datos N/A — TSP is a transport-layer trust spanning protocol; persistence is implementation/application concern
Lenguaje de Consulta N/A — TSP is message-oriented (Direct Mode endpoint-to-endpoint, Routed Mode via intermediaries); query patterns belong at higher ToIP layers
Formatos de Datos TSP messages with VID_String length-prefixed identifiers; supports DID and URN syntaxes (extensible)
Soporte Móvil Designed to be lightweight enough for mobile and constrained devices; transport-agnostic so messages can run over Bluetooth, HTTP, or other transports suitable for mobile
Soporte Web Transport-agnostic — designed to be carried over any transport (HTTPS, DIDComm, raw sockets)
Aplicaciones Nativas Implementation-dependent; reference Rust and Python libraries are embeddable in native apps; expected wallet integrations via OpenWallet Foundation reference implementation
Términos Open standard, free to implement (under ToIP IPR framework requiring contributor membership)
Fondos Unknown — ToIP/LF Decentralized Trust funded by member dues; specific TSPTF budget not separately published; four years of cumulative person-hours invested by ToIP members and sponsoring organizations (Futurewei, Gen, Accenture)
Basado En W3C DIDs (DID method-agnostic); KERI Autonomic Identifiers (AIDs); IETF URN spec (RFC 8141); public-key cryptography
Permisos Out of scope for TSP itself — permission and authorization semantics belong at higher ToIP layers
Autenticación e Identidad VID-rooted — endpoints identified by Verifiable Identifiers (DIDs, AIDs, or URN-based PKC identifiers)
Modelo de Almacenamiento N/A — transport protocol; storage of messages, keys, and credentials is implementation concern at higher layers
Interoperabilidad Designed as a "spanning layer" for maximum interoperability across decentralized digital trust infrastructure; can bridge centralized, federated, and decentralized identifier architectures
Portabilidad de Datos High — VIDs and TSP-channel relationships are portable across transports and ecosystems; any VID type can communicate with any other VID type through the spanning protocol
Gobernanza y Toma de Decisiones ToIP TSWG governance — open weekly meetings, consensus-driven, IPR-protected under LF Decentralized Trust; cross-organization collaboration with DIF, Hyperledger, OpenWallet Foundation, W3C Credentials Community Group; Implementers Drafts iterated through public review
Madurez del Protocolo / Estandarización Implementers Draft (current); pre-1.0; Rust and Python reference implementations in development
Estándares de Identidad W3C DIDs, KERI AIDs, ToIP Technology Architecture Specification
Métodos DID Soportados Any (method-agnostic by design)
Gestión de Claves Per VID system (DID method or KERI key event log)
Tipos de Credenciales N/A at the spanning protocol layer — credentials are exchanged at higher ToIP Layer 3 Trust Tasks (DIDComm-style credential exchange, OpenID4VC, etc.)
Método de Verificación Cryptographic verification using keys associated with senders VID
Funciones de Privacidad Optional confidentiality (encryption); optional metadata privacy (anti-correlation measures)
Métodos de Autenticación Mandatory authenticity via cryptographic signatures rooted in VID
Mecanismo de Revocación Underlying VID system's revocation — KERI key rotation events, DID document update, X.509 CRL/OCSP — TSP itself does not define revocation, deferring to the VID's trust root
Tipos de Agentes Soportados Humans, institutions, devices, AI agents — TSP April 2025 white paper explicitly extends to AI and human trust interactions
Tipos de Billetera/Cliente Implementation-dependent — expected wallet integrations via OpenWallet Foundation reference implementation; KERI-style agent infrastructure compatible
Mecanismos de Recuperación Underlying VID system's recovery — KERI rotation events, DID rotation, X.509 reissuance — TSP itself does not define recovery
Cumplimiento / Regulaciones Designed to support eIDAS, EUDI Wallet, and GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation) use cases; GLEIF actively participating in TSPTF
Protocolos de Intercambio de Credenciales TSP is not a credential exchange protocol itself; credential exchange protocols including DIDComm subprotocols and OpenID4VC can run over TSP
Marco de Confianza Layer 2 of ToIP four-layer stack; complemented by TRQP (Layer 1) for trust registry queries; supports any governance framework above it
Modelo de Costos Free — open standard, royalty-free implementation under ToIP/LF Decentralized Trust IPR
Resistencia a la Censura Strong — transport-agnostic, messages can traverse any underlying transport without prior assumption of trust; Routed Mode supports intermediary-mediated circumvention