Credential Status & Bitstring Status Lists

Credential status lets an issuer say whether a signed credential is still usable without changing the credential itself. LearnCard Network uses W3C Bitstring Status List for VC 2.0 credentials issued through the network.

The credential keeps a credentialStatus entry. That entry points to a public, signed status list credential. Verifiers fetch the list, decode the compressed bitstring, and check the credential's assigned statusListIndex.

How Status Works

For each credential, the network allocates a status list index from an issuer-owned list. The list is scoped by:

• The issuer profile

• The status purpose

• The configured list size

The default list size is 131,072 bits. When a list fills up, the network closes it and creates a new list automatically. New credentials receive entries that point at the new list URL.

Status Purposes

LearnCard Network supports two status purposes:

Purpose	Meaning when the bit is clear	Meaning when the bit is set
revocation	The credential has not been revoked	The credential has been revoked
suspension	The credential is not suspended	The credential is suspended

A credential can include either purpose or both:

{
    "credentialStatus": [
        {
            "type": "BitstringStatusListEntry",
            "statusPurpose": "revocation",
            "statusListIndex": "42",
            "statusListCredential": "https://network.learncard.com/status-lists/..."
        },
        {
            "type": "BitstringStatusListEntry",
            "statusPurpose": "suspension",
            "statusListIndex": "87",
            "statusListCredential": "https://network.learncard.com/status-lists/..."
        }
    ]
}

Revocation and suspension are independent. Suspending a credential does not revoke it. Unsuspending a credential clears only the suspension bit.

Pending Credentials

Status belongs to the issued credential, not only to the accepted credential record. This matters because an issuer can revoke or suspend a credential before the recipient accepts it.

If a pending credential is revoked or suspended, the network updates the status list and the recipient cannot accept that credential as active.

Public Status Lists

Status list credentials are available from stable public URLs:

GET /status-lists/:id

The response is a signed verifiable credential. Its credentialSubject.encodedList value contains the compressed bitstring, encoded according to the W3C Bitstring Status List format.

Public status lists do not include recipient identities or credential contents. A verifier needs the credential's credentialStatus entry to know which index to check.

Verification Results

Verification checks each credentialStatus entry and returns status results alongside proof, expiration, and other checks.

For user-facing output, LearnCard formats status results with friendly labels, such as:

• Status: Active

• Status: Not Revoked

• Status: Revoked

• Status: Suspended

• Status: Not Suspended

For API usage, see Bitstring Status Lists.