Version: Stage 5 - Deliverable Acceptance Check

2026-10-01 1655 AEST

UN CEFACT GRID Project - EU

Oct 1, 2026

Attendees

Alina Nica Gales
Sankarshan
John Phillips

Summary

Public review issues and schema versioning and pilot updates discussed.

Public Review And Governance
Semantic versioning approach applied for data schemas. Decentralized identifiers reviewed for applicant control.

Lifecycle And Pilot Updates
State transition diagrams proposed for lifecycle management. Spanish pilot awaits board approval.

Glossary And International Participation
Glossary definitions updated for verifiable credentials. Russian delegation extension granted for review.

Decisions

Adoption of semantic versioning for data schemas The group aligned on adopting a semver-based approach to version management for JSON data packets and data schemas.
Integration of custodial wallet guidance The group aligned on incorporating text regarding custodial wallet capabilities and legal-operational boundaries for registrars into the implementation guidelines.
Inclusion of membership life cycle diagrams The group aligned on adding text and mermaid-based state transition diagrams regarding the membership life cycle into the legal governance and target operating model deliverable.
Creation of history issue label and tracker The group aligned on creating a dedicated label and tracker for history-related public review comments.
Merging public review update branch into main The group aligned on merging the public review update 03 branch directly into the main branch.

Next steps

Details

Public Review Issue Log and Process: John Phillips opened the meeting to work through public review comments and issue logs for the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Data Interchange GRID project [00:00:00]. John Phillips explained that the system splits multi-issue forms into separate issues, with two currently flagged as ready for review from the Indian delegation, specifically from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade and raised by Yash Gandolia [00:00:52].

Schema Versioning and Governance Strategy: John Phillips addressed a public review issue regarding the lack of version control for JavaScript Object Notation data schemas. John Phillips applied a semantic versioning approach used in the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Data Interchange, creating a standalone document on schema governance [00:03:56]. Sankarshan reviewed and approved the change, and John Phillips committed it back to version 109, closing the issue [00:04:56].

Register Provision Identifier Model and Decentralized Identifiers: John Phillips discussed an issue from the Indian delegation questioning whether a registrar must allow applicants to generate their own decentralized identifier or if the registrar can produce the identifier and verifiable record [00:06:39]. John Phillips noted that while small and medium enterprises in maturing countries may lack cryptographic management capabilities, the cryptographic identifier must remain under the applicant's control to maintain a clear legal and operational boundary, though custodial wallet providers could operate [00:07:42] [00:11:54]. John Phillips added clarifying text in branch public review update 03, which Alina Nica Gales agreed with [00:09:45] [00:12:52].

Delegation of Authority and Privacy Implications: John Phillips and Alina Nica Gales reviewed issue 108 regarding delegation of authority and agreed no text changes are necessary [00:13:59]. Sankarshan concurred with this assessment [00:16:13]. Regarding data privacy implications of naming individuals, Sankarshan noted that this is best addressed when GRID is operationalized in a specific jurisdiction, and administrators or registrars often must be publicly named natural individuals according to jurisdictional laws [00:18:14]. John Phillips agreed, citing a similar public registry example in Australia [00:19:35].

Life Cycle Management and State Transition Diagrams: John Phillips introduced the topic of historical state tracking, noting that an organization's registration or accreditation goes through lifecycles that require historical data verification [00:21:26]. Steve Capel raised this issue with the World Wide Web Consortium credentials community [00:22:38]. John Phillips proposed adding a Mermaid state transition diagram and explanatory text detailing states, including applicant, eligible, member, suspended, and withdrawn, to the legal, governance, and target operating model deliverable [00:25:23] [00:30:14]. Alina Nica Gales and Sankarshan agreed that including state transition diagrams helps clarify operations and allows specific feedback [00:28:22] [00:32:03].

Pilot Implementation Updates in Spain: Alina Nica Gales reported on the Spanish pilot, noting that Alina Nica Gales spoke with Nacho, the Spanish representative for pilot work on GRID who has worked on the European blockchain standards initiative and European Union business wallet initiatives [00:34:00]. Nacho indicated no problems with the pilot, and Alina Nica Gales stated they are awaiting formal board of management approval following a call with the director of the European and foreign affairs department, describing it as a straightforward weekend pilot [00:35:22].

Issue Tracking and Branch Merging: John Phillips proposed creating a history label in the issue tracker to group all history-related public review comments so they can be referenced easily for the World Wide Web Consortium working groups [00:36:56]. Sankarshan supported this approach [00:37:51]. Additionally, Sankarshan suggested merging branch public review update 03 into the main branch since Alina Nica Gales and John Phillips agreed on the changes, and John Phillips agreed to perform the merge [00:38:53].

Glossary Clarification on Verifiable Credentials: John Phillips and Sankarshan discussed comments from Manu, who suggested radically changing verifiable credentials based on the assumption that verification guarantees the absolute truth of a document's contents rather than just cryptographic integrity [00:40:51]. Sankarshan and John Phillips concluded this was outside GRID's scope [00:41:57]. To address this, John Phillips and Sankarshan updated the glossary definition of verifiable and verification in update 02, which is already merged and closed [00:40:51] [00:42:50].

Russian Delegation Extension and International Participation: John Phillips and Alina Nica Gales discussed an extension requested by the Russian head of delegation through the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Data Interchange secretariat, asking for a 4 week extension from September 21st to review GRID [00:44:04]. The secretariat agreed to allow them time while proceeding with public review processing [00:45:02]. Sankarshan noted that when October arrives, the Russian delegation will need to evaluate their feedback against the updated baseline [00:46:09]. John Phillips highlighted growing international support and engagement from Germany, the United Kingdom, and the recent Geneva Global Digital Compact meeting [00:48:00].

Participant Collaboration and Next Steps: Sankarshan stated they will complete posting their comments on the remaining issues today [00:51:05]. John Phillips noted that external commenters, such as the Ramify startup, have been notified of issue processing via public GitLab access and can join meetings after reviewing how their comments were handled. Alina Nica Gales, John Phillips, and Sankarshan concluded the meeting and agreed to continue reviewing issues over the coming weeks [00:50:05].

Chat

00:03:20.259,00:03:23.259
sankarshan: Yash Gandoliya

00:23:35.738,00:23:38.738
sankarshan: Steve's email (if we want to record it) - https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-credentials/2026Sep/0034.html

It is a long thread etc

00:28:00.874,00:28:03.874
John Phillips: https://sezoo-digital.github.io/Verifiable-Credential-Papers/LifeCycleV3.html

00:41:36.843,00:41:39.843
sankarshan: Our response was "we aren't doing it, go away" - or a polite version of it

00:41:57.950,00:42:00.950
Alina Nica Gales: )))

UN CEFACT GRID Project - EU​

Attendees​

Summary​

Decisions​

Next steps​

Details​

Chat​