The OpenID Foundation has announced that it will open self-certification through its conformance testing platform on February 26, 2026, covering OpenID4VP 1.0, OpenID4VCI 1.0, and the High Assurance Interoperability Profile 1.0. The move is intended to support implementers building digital identity wallets, credential issuers, and verifiers in jurisdictions that have selected OpenID’s verifiable credential specifications.
According to the OpenID Foundation, the self-certification program is aimed at a global implementer base spanning 38 jurisdictions where the OpenID for Verifiable Credentials family has been adopted or referenced in policy and technical frameworks. The organization says the availability of standardized conformance testing is intended to reduce fragmentation and increase interoperability as these systems move from pilots into broader deployment.
The OpenID Foundation has made conformance tests available immediately as free, open-source tooling. Implementers can run the tests locally or against OpenID-hosted servers, and the foundation says many teams are already integrating the tests into continuous integration pipelines using an API. Once the self-certification program formally launches, organizations will be able to submit self-certified test logs to the OpenID Foundation, which will then publish results on its certification site. Participation in publication is optional, but the foundation has positioned transparency as a key part of building trust across ecosystems.
Beyond self-certification, the OpenID Foundation reiterated plans to introduce accreditation services in the second quarter of 2026. These services are expected to involve additional validation layers, with the foundation citing pilot partnerships currently under development. While details of accreditation requirements have not yet been finalized, the announcement signals a phased approach that begins with open testing and progresses toward more formal assurance mechanisms.
The conformance testing infrastructure itself is positioned as a core part of this strategy. The OpenID Conformance Suite is maintained as an open-source project hosted on GitLab and can be run at no cost for development and testing. The foundation notes that fees apply only when organizations seek formal certification. Documentation describes support for staging environments, Docker-based local deployments, and scripting for automated test execution.
Testing coverage for OpenID4VP focuses on presentation flows, including support for different credential formats such as SD-JWT verifiable credentials and ISO mdoc variants, along with multiple request and response modes. OpenID4VCI conformance testing addresses credential issuance flows, with guidance provided on running tests and collecting results.
The announcement follows a remote interoperability testing event held in November 2025, where the OpenID Foundation reported high pass rates for HAIP 1.0 alongside OpenID4VP 1.0 and OpenID4VCI 1.0. The foundation explicitly linked those results to the availability of open-source conformance testing, framing self-certification as the next step toward scalable, interoperable digital identity deployments.
Sources: OpenID Foundation, GitLab (Conformance Suite), Google Docs (Documentation)
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By Cass Kennedy
