OrgBook BC
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Organizations and citizens need easy access to verified information about registered BC organizations. To streamline and modernize this access, the OrgBook BC digital service was developed by the Government of British Columbia using proven technologies in Digital Trust.
Context and questions
As part of a strong digital economy, citizens and organizations need confidence in online data that’s accurate, up-to-date and trustworthy. The Government of British Columbia is continually exploring new ways to build that confidence and trust in government through improving the integrity of information.
The official registry of BC organizations is an obvious candidate for those efforts. By providing easy access to those records, citizens can be reassured about their business interactions, legal entities can validate key organization details, government departments can streamline and simplify processes, and organizations can monitor and assess updates as an indicator of economic activity.
This led to the creation of OrgBook BC. The BC Digital Identity and Trust Program and BC Registries teams identified an opportunity to collaborate, delivering registered organizations’ details online using a new digital trust technology called Verifiable Credentials. The OrgBook BC service was designed to be the intersection between the modernization of access to verified organization information, and the exploration of verifiable credential technology that could form part of a new digital trust framework.
Verifiable credentials are like physical credentials—driving licenses and the like—we hold in our wallets, but are digital and are stored in digital wallets. They also go beyond just being digital equivalents of physical credentials. A verifier can prove who is meant to hold a verifiable credential, who issued it, that it hasn’t been tampered with (which makes forging it impossible), and that it hasn’t been revoked. This means that verifiable credentials support confidentiality, information integrity, and the overall building of trust online.
The approach
BC Registries collaborated with the Digital Identity and Trust Program to issue (that is, create and send) organization verifiable credentials to OrgBook BC as part of the organization registration process. In fact, any registration updates, including revocations and new business relationships, trigger a verifiable credential update to OrgBook BC. This step also laid the foundation for BC Registries to potentially issue verifiable credentials directly to organizations in the future.
The Digital Identity and Trust Program was able to leverage this functionality and further develop OrgBook BC to access the information in those verifiable credentials. Specifically, they developed the public-facing OrgBook BC website with an advanced search feature, an API for integrating OrgBook BC data into other services, and a notification feature so anyone can be notified about additions and updates. All the software is open source for others to use or adapt as desired.
Taking advantage of verifiable credentials’ potential, OrgBook BC was also developed to allow other authorities to issue verifiable credentials. For example, BC’s Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch issues permit and license verifiable credentials against registered organizations. Those verifiable credentials have a relationship to the organizations in OrgBook BC.
BC Government’s Digital Identity and Trust Program has also been contributing to worldwide verifiable credential tools and technologies for several years, reducing this project’s risk and simplifying its execution.
OrgBook BC was built on Hyperledger Aries and Indy, open-source Digital Trust technologies with many worldwide contributors including the Government of BC. It was deployed on a modern IT platform (Kubernetes) that supported the service’s goals of robustness and scale.
Outcomes that matter
OrgBook BC is a progression towards digital trust, yet is not the whole answer. All teams involved have learned much from this practical deployment of verifiable credentials. Our hope is that this work continues to evolve and be shaped by an ecosystem that continues to grow and learn.
This is the beginning of a story, built on partnerships, collaboration and a shared vision. Specific outcomes include:
- As of June 2021 OrgBook BC has over 1.4 million active legal entities, has over 3.8 million VCs, and is usually updated within minutes of a new or changed registration. This has proved its ability, and Hyperledger Aries’ and Indy’s abilities, to scale and support real-world scenarios
- Multiple practical uses are already possible, including verifying if an organization is legally registered in BC, searching for business numbers, and finding “Doing business as” names registered by corporations. Many citizens have also provided feedback on OrgBook BC’s value to their work
- VC technology, as used by OrgBook BC, is flexible enough to expand further and support ecosystem-like connections. For example, OrgBook BC might present VCs of registered organization information to aid in businesses obtaining a loan or for a government department processing subsidies. Businesses may even hold and present their registered organization VCs themselves rather than requesting proof from OrgBook BC or resorting to emailing a fallible document. VCs become the secure building blocks for seamless, confidential and trustworthy exchanges between parties
