# openid4vci

Source: https://startwithidentity.com/glossary/openid4vci/
Last updated: 2026-08-29
License: content by Start with Identity. Cite the source URL.

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An OpenID Foundation protocol that defines how an issuer delivers verifiable credentials to a holder's wallet, building on OAuth 2.0. Together with OpenID4VP it is emerging as the dominant transport for decentralized credentials, and underpins the EU's EUDI Wallet.

OpenID4VCI matters because it lets wallets and issuers interoperate without bilateral integration: the wallet discovers what a credential offer contains and how to obtain it using OAuth machinery developers already have. It is the issuance half of the stack the EU wallet standardized on, which effectively settled a decade-long argument about credential transport in favor of OAuth-based flows over bespoke DIDComm messaging.

See also: [OpenID4VC](https://startwithidentity.com/standards/openid4vc/), [OpenID4VP](https://startwithidentity.com/glossary/openid4vp/), [verifiable credential](https://startwithidentity.com/glossary/verifiable-credential/), [digital wallet](https://startwithidentity.com/glossary/digital-wallet/)