Blind credential - Definition and Overview

A blind credential is a token asserting that someone qualifies under some criteria or has some status or right, without revealing "who" that person is — without including their name or address, for instance. It is used in maintaining medical privacy and increasingly for consumer privacy.

It can be quite difficult to ascertain that someone is not using another's credential — identity theft — therefore a great deal of effort goes into the application of cryptography to authentication.

Electronic money requires some blind credential system to assert that the money is valid, and has not been already spent, and belongs to the individual or entity that is spending it.

It is usually not wise to consider a blind credential outside of the Public Key Infrastructure of electronic identity guarantees required to support it.

See also: Public key cryptography, Blind signature