Digital Credential for Certificate of Good Conduct
Every year in the Netherlands, more than 1.8 million Certificates of Good Conduct (VOGs) are issued. Justis — the screening authority of the Ministry of Justice and Security — is piloting the digital issuance of the VOG as a verifiable credential, transforming a slow paper-based process into an instant, cryptographically verifiable flow.
The Challenge
The Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG) plays a crucial role in safeguarding trust in Dutch society. More than 350 large organizations and 26,000 sports clubs rely on it to verify employees, trainers and volunteers before granting access to sensitive roles. No club wants a coach with a criminal record for child abuse on the field.
Today this process is slow, inefficient and vulnerable to fraud. Paper and PDF-based certificates can be falsified, verification requires manual handling, and processing times range from 1 to 7 weeks. The result: delayed onboarding, unnecessary administrative effort, and millions of euros in lost business value each year.
With the Dutch EUDI Wallet arriving in 2026 and the eIDAS 2.0 regulation taking effect, Justis set out to prepare its VOG issuance for this new infrastructure — starting with a controlled pilot in a production environment.
The Solution
A digital-first approach transforms the process entirely. Justis issues the VOG as a cryptographically secured verifiable credential through Credenco's Business Wallet — the same proven platform used in earlier practical trials, including the successful BOA-app initiative.
Citizens receive their certificate directly in their personal wallet, ensuring privacy and full control over their data. Employers, sports clubs and institutions verify authenticity instantly through their Business Wallet — without manual checks, physical documents or waiting periods.
The solution is built on international open standards — W3C Verifiable Credentials, the ARF v1.4 Architecture Reference Framework, ETSI TS 119 472-1 and 119 471, and the DIIP v5 profile — ensuring interoperability with the NL-EUDI Wallet, the FIDES Credential Catalogue and third-party wallets. Because the VOG credential uses the same data definitions as today's paper VOG, it plugs in to Justis' existing message formats.
The Pilot
Building on a successful practical trial in 2024, the 2025 pilot is organized by COVOG inside Justis and runs with at least one large external consumer of VOGs. Target groups include sports associations and the police as preferred pilot organizations — exactly where the value of fast, trustworthy screening is most tangible.
Credenco provides the Business Wallet platform (available as a SaaS or on-premise service), a citizen-facing VOG app, and a validation flow that supports both remote sharing (e.g. an emailed validation QR code) and nearby validation through QR scans at the point of entry. The pilot runs through autumn 2025, with evaluation and recommendations completed early 2026.
The Result
The solution has already been successfully piloted with several sports associations, where volunteers shared their VOG digitally and clubs confirmed validity in real time. The outcome: a faster, more secure and fully automated process that scales effortlessly — and a clear path for Justis toward large-scale digital issuance from 2026 onward.
At a glance
Sector
Government / HR
Credential
Certificate of Good Conduct
Annual volume
1.8M VOGs / year
Processing time
From 7 weeks to seconds
Standard
W3C Verifiable Credentials
Impact
What changes when the VOG moves from paper to a verifiable credential.
Fraud Prevention
Cryptographic signatures make falsified paper or PDF copies impossible to use undetected.
Instant Verification
Processing time drops from 1–7 weeks to seconds. Onboarding happens in real time.
Less Admin Burden
No physical documents, no manual handling. The process runs end-to-end digitally.
Scalable & Future-Proof
Handles thousands of verifications simultaneously, across sectors and borders.
Practical Examples
Three concrete applications where the digital VOG delivers value today.
Screen trainers and volunteers in bulk with immediate, verifiable results — no more paper trails or delayed onboarding before the season starts.
Automate large-scale Certificate of Good Conduct checks during hiring campaigns, reducing time-to-hire from weeks to minutes.
Receive and validate student teacher and intern certificates fully digitally, directly from the issuing authority.
Future Outlook
Digitizing the VOG is a strategic first step toward a comprehensive digital government issuance ecosystem. Using the same wallet infrastructure, diplomas, permits and other certificates can follow — positioning government as the trusted source of digital assurance and unlocking significant economic and societal value. With 1.8 million VOGs issued every year, this solution touches millions of citizens and tens of thousands of organizations, strengthening trust and safety across the country.