Holder

A holder is the person or organisation that receives a verifiable credential, stores it in a wallet, and decides when and with whom to share it. The holder is not necessarily the subject the credential is about.

A holder controls a credential rather than owning the facts it describes: a company may hold a credential about one of its employees, or a parent may hold one on behalf of a child. When a relying party asks for proof, the holder decides which credential to present and, with selective disclosure, exactly which claims inside it to reveal. The holder role is what the EUDI Wallet is built around: the wallet software runs on the holder's device, stores the credential locally rather than in a central database, and prompts the holder to review and approve each presentation request before anything is sent. This puts the holder in a position no paper document allows, being able to disclose a single fact, such as being over eighteen, without revealing the birth date, address or any other claim on the same credential. A holder can also collect multiple credentials from different issuers into one wallet and combine them in a single presentation, for example proving both a professional qualification and a company registration in one interaction with a relying party. Because control sits with the holder rather than the issuer or verifier, losing access to the device or wallet, not the credential's content, is what typically triggers reissuance. The distinction between holder and subject matters most for credentials issued about a minor, an animal or an asset, where the person controlling the wallet and the party the claims describe are simply not the same entity.

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