OpenID4VP

OpenID4VP, formally OpenID for Verifiable Presentations, is a protocol for moving verifiable credentials from a digital wallet to a verifier. In plain English, it defines the request-and-response flow between the business asking for proof and the wallet holding the user’s credential. Instead of uploading a photo of an ID or manually entering personal details, the user can approve a wallet presentation and send back a signed proof.

The important part is that OpenID4VP is not the credential itself. It is the presentation layer. A mDL, EUDI Wallet credential, age attestation, or other wallet-issued credential can be presented through an OpenID4VP flow. The verifier asks for a specific claim, such as over 18, over 21, or licensed driver, and the wallet returns a verifiable presentation that can be checked cryptographically.

This matters because identity verification is moving away from document collection and toward wallet-based proof. In the old model, a business often received more PII than it actually needed: full name, date of birth, address, document number, and a scanned ID image. In an OpenID4VP flow, the verifier can request only the required attribute, and the wallet can return a signed result without exposing unnecessary fields. For age verification, that can mean receiving an age-tier result such as 21+: yes instead of the user’s full date of birth.

OpenID4VP is especially relevant because it sits in the middle of several digital identity rollouts. The EUDI Wallet uses OpenID-based protocols for remote wallet presentations, while mDL ecosystems use similar wallet-to-verifier patterns for online and in-person checks. The practical result is that merchants, marketplaces, logistics platforms, and regulated services will increasingly need to accept credentials from wallets rather than relying only on document scan.

For developers, the upside is interoperability. OpenID4VP gives wallets and verifiers a standard way to communicate, but the real-world implementation is still fragmented across credential formats, wallet providers, trust frameworks, and jurisdiction-specific requirements. Stile abstracts that complexity into a single verification flow, so a business can request the result it needs — age, identity, authorization, or credential validity — without building separate wallet integrations for every ecosystem.