Aries VCR Issuer Agency

A scalable, multi-tenanted issuer service based on Aries Cloud Agent Python to facilitate issuing verifiable credentials to an Aries VCR instance.

Running the Agency

Prerequisites

Docker

Ensure that you have Docker and Docker Compose installed in your environment.

Please see instructions here for installing Docker and instructions here for installing Docker Compose on your system.

VON network

You will need to have a ledger setup in order to use the Agency. If you are running Aries VCR, you should already have a locally running instance of the VON network.

Otherwise, please see the instructions here to get a VON network up and running on your system.

Aries VCR

The Agency will issue credentials to an instance of Aries VCR running in the same network. Therefore, you will need to have a running instance of Aries-VCR.

Please see the instructions here to get Aries VCR up and running on your system.

Starting the Agency

1. Open a terminal and navigate to the ./docker directory.

2. Run the command: ./manage build in your terminal. This command will build all the relevant container services for the application. Please wait while this completes.

3. Once containers have completed building, run the command: ./manage start in your terminal. This command will start up the Agency. Please wait while this completes.

4. Once the Agency has started, open your browser to http:localhost:8090. This is the Issuer web interface. Open another browser tab to http://localhost:3030/swagger/docs. This is the Swagger API interface for the Agency Admin. You will need to register an Issuer using the Agency Admin API in order to obtain an Issuer API key. The API key will allow you to log into the Issuer web interface, create schemas and issue credentials. The Agency Admin API can be authenticated using the API key: 'controller-api-key'. See the detailed instructions below.

Instructions for Creating a New Issuer

1. Open a browser tab to http://localhost:3030/swagger/docs - this is the Swagger API interface for the Agency Admin.

2. Click on the Authorize button, enter the "APIKeyHeader (apiKey)": controller-api-key and click on "Authorize" and then "Close". Note that this authorizes the Agency (which can create new Issuers) but does not authorize any Issuers.

3. Create an issuer - select the POST /admin endpoint and enter a value for "name" in the request body - this will be the name of the Issuer. Submit this request. For example:

{
  "name": "Ians Test Issuer"
}

This request will return the api key for the Issuer, for example:

{
  "name": "Ians Test Issuer",
  "api-key": "06d0cc5e-2858-4130-aefb-b88f8b070433"
}

What does this do? A lot!!!

• Verifies that the requested Issuer name does not yet exist
• Creates a new "sub-wallet" in the Agency (we will call this the "Issuer Agent")
• Creates a new Issuer API Key (the Issuer must supply this when using any API's to manage their profile or issue credentials)
  • the Issuer API Key is stored in the Agency's local database
• Creates a new DID for the "Issuer Agent" (stored in the "sub-wallet"; this is the DID under which the Issuer will issue credentials)
• Creates a connection between the "Issuer Agent" and the Aries VCR Agent
• Create (and configure) a connection between the "Issuer Agent" and the Endorser Agent
• Register the Issuer Agent's DID on the Ledger, and set as the Public DID for the "Issuer Agent"
• Accept the Ledger TAA on behalf of the "Issuer Agent"

At this point you can open the Agency Agent (http://localhost:8044/api/doc) and the Aries VCR Agent (http://localhost:8024/api/doc) and view the connection information using the aca-py admin api.

(The API Key to authorize the Agency Agent is agency-api-key, and the JWT for the sub-wallet ("subWallet.token") is stored in the Agency's local MongoDB database. If you start the agency as AGENCY_LOG_LEVEL=debug ./manage start then the "subWallet.token" will be printed in the console log:

agency-controller-dev_1    | debug: Created new profile with name Ians Test Issuer
agency-controller-dev_1    | debug:    .... with sub-wallet token eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJ3YWxsZXRfaWQiOiJjNjhlMWY4OC01NWVkLTQ4YmUtYTA3OS1mYWM3MjU5YjY1MDkifQ.LugEPS8qVqKXK5mOUG1fUXbeOMRkjC_4EycKAwlmjZg

Obviously don't do this in production!

Note that when you authorize the sub-wallet token pre-pend Bearer <the token>.)

4. Click on the Authorize button again (same as in step 2 above) and enter the "IssuerAPIKeyHeader (apiKey)": 06d0cc5e-2858-4130-aefb-b88f8b070433 (based on the previous step, your mileage will vary) and click on "Authorize" and then "Close". This will authorize your new Issuer for the next series of steps.

5. Enter Issuer Profile info - select the POST /issuer/profile endpoint and enter values for the profile attributes. Submit this request. For example:

{
  "abbreviation": "ianco",
  "url": "https://anon-solutions.ca",
  "email": "test@mail.com",
  "logo": "https://anon-solutions.ca/assets/images/Anon5-greylime.png"
}

This request will also return the DID and Verkey of your issuer, which you may want to make note of:

{
  "did": "7qsq2ZBgmZvU3xHgXfRXVx",
  "verkey": "4jK3Xx6ZtaUSDAJabiQCqstUJwK4hxjzxTtKvg6sE9hx",
  "name": "Ians Test Issuer",
  "abbreviation": "ianco",
  "url": "https://anon-solutions.ca",
  "email": "test@mail.com",
  "logo": "https://anon-solutions.ca/assets/images/Anon5-greylime.png"
}

What does this do? Not much, it updates the Issuer profile data to the local Agency database, but doesn't send any info (yet) to Aries VCR.

6. Next step is to setup any schemas you plan to issue - POST /issuer/schema. Submit with some schema data, for example:

{
  "schema_name": "ianco-permit",
  "schema_version": "1.0.0",
  "attributes": [
    "corp_num", "corp_name", "permit_no", "issue_date",
    "addressee", "civic_address", "city", "province", "postal_code", "country",
    "effective_date", "revoked_date"
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "topic": [
      {
        "name": "corp_num",
        "topic_type": "string"
      }
    ],
    "cardinality": [
      "permit_no"
    ],
    "date_fields": {
      "effective_date": "effective_date",
      "revoked_date": "revoked_date",
      "other_date_fields": [
        "issue_date"
      ]
    },
    "address_fields": [
      {
        "addressee": "addressee",
        "civic_address": "civic_address",
        "city": "city",
        "province": "province",
        "postal_code": "postal_code",
        "country": "country"
      }
    ],
    "search_fields": [
      "corp_name"
    ],
    "labels": {
      "schema": {
        "en": "Ianco Permit",
        "fr": "Permit de Ianco"
      },
      "attributes": [
        {
          "name": "corp_num",
          "translations": {
            "en": {
              "label": "Corp Number",
              "description": "Corp Number assigned by the registrar"
            },
            "fr": {
              "label": "Le Numero de Corp",
              "description": "Asignee par la registrar"
            }
          }
        },
        {
          "name": "corp_name",
          "translations": {
            "en": {
              "label": "Corp Name",
              "description": "Name under which this corp does business"
            },
            "fr": {
              "label": "Le Name de Corp",
              "description": "Le name de corp"
            }
          }
        },
        {
          "name": "permit_no",
          "translations": {
            "en": {
              "label": "Permit Number",
              "description": "Permit Number assigned by the issuer"
            },
            "fr": {
              "label": "Le Numero de Permit",
              "description": "Asignee par la issuer"
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

This is a fairly verbose example, but it illustrates the main features of the Issuer Schema:

• schema name and version
• list of attributes that will be included in the issued credentials
• metadata for the schema, including attribute definitions (data type, etc) and translated names and descriptions to display in OrgBook

Obviously translations can be included for all schema attributes.

The response will include the Schema and Cred Def ID's:

{
  "schema_id": "7qsq2ZBgmZvU3xHgXfRXVx:2:ianco-permit:1.0.0",
  "credential_definition_id": "7qsq2ZBgmZvU3xHgXfRXVx:3:CL:14:Ians_Test_Issuer"
}

What does this do? A lot!!!!

• Checks if the request is creating a new Schema or updating an existing Schema
• Posts the Schema to the Ledger (via the Endorser)
• Posts the Credential Definition to the Ledger (via the Endorser)
• Posts the Issuer information/schema to Aries VCR

At this point, if you call the Aries VCR endpoint http://localhost:8081/api/v2/issuer you will see the Issuer information you just registered.

Note that if the Issuer will issue Credentials under multiple Schemas, each Schema must be entered individually, and each time a Schema is added or updated, the full set of Issuer data will be posted to Aries VCR.

7. Finall you (the Issuer) can issue a credential - POST /issuer/credential:

{
  "schema_name": "ianco-permit",
  "schema_version": "1.0.0",
  "attributes": {
    "corp_num": "BC1234567",
    "corp_name": "Ians Test Company",
    "permit_no": "123465",
    "issue_date": "2021-01-01",
    "addressee": "Mr Big Wig",
    "civic_address": "123 Any Street",
    "city": "Vancouver",
    "province": "BC",
    "postal_code": "V1V 1V1",
    "country": "Canada",
    "effective_date": "2021-04-01",
    "revoked_date": ""
  }
}

The response will include the credential id, which should be saved by the issuer:

{
  "cred_ex_id": "bedd1b0a-584b-4cfa-bbf9-0a3542147288",
  "success": true
}

If the credential issue fails, the response will include an error message.

8. You can look up the information in OrgBook using the API's:

GET /issuer

GET /credential

... or you can open the Aries VCR UI in a new browser tab (http://localhost:8080) and search for the company by name.

Stopping the Agency

1. Navigate to the ./docker directory if you aren't already there.

2. Run the command: ./manage stop in your terminal. This will stop the running application containers. Note: this will not remove the containers from your environment.

3. (Opitonal) Run the command: ./manage down in your terminal. This will remove the application containers from your environment and free up resources.