# What are the key roles in Verifiable Credentials?

<figure><img src="/files/WFU8k1Znbggau485ZXjB" alt=""><figcaption><p>Daniel H Hardman, CC BY-SA 4.0 <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons</p></figcaption></figure>

The Key roles involved in the Verifiable Credentials ecosystem are:

**Holder:** Someone who owns the credentials as a proof and is responsible for generating presentations from them. Examples include students, employees, citizens, customers, parents of a children etc.

**Issuer:** A legal entity responsible for asserting claims about the holder or the subject about a verifiable event by issuing a verifiable credential to a holder. Few examples of issuers include government issuing national ID to the citizens, Universities issuing degrees to the students and employers issuing experience certificate to the employees.

**Subject:** An entity about which the verifiable claim is being made. For example: children, student, a pet etc.

**Verifier:** An entity who is responsible for verifying an issued credentials. Few examples include employers, event organizers, universities etc.

**Verifiable Data Registry:** This refers to a role that a system may perform by mediating the creation and verification of identifiers, keys, and other relevant data, such as verifiable credential schemas, revocation registries, issuer public keys, and so on, which may be required to use verifiable credentials.


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