Velocity Network Foundation Announces Testnet Plus New Members, Strengthening Pathways between Education and Employment

The Velocity Network Foundation has launched the Velocity Network Testnet, signaling a significant step toward the coming availability of the Internet of Careers.™

Powered by blockchain, the Velocity Network makes it possible for people to claim and manage their verifiable career credentials. Employers and educational institutions can rely on these trusted credentials, reducing the time and costs associated with talent processes, mitigating risk through reliable data and supporting compliance in today’s global labor market.

Major technology vendors have successfully interacted with the Velocity Network via this live Testnet, demonstrating their ability to issue tamper-proof credentials to an individual’s secure, self-sovereign digital wallet. They have also shown their ability to inspect those credentials and ensure their authenticity and accuracy as this information is shared by individuals from their digital wallets.

Key attributes displayed within Velocity Network’s Testnet include:

• Credential Agent Appliance: The software appliance run by HCM, Education Tech and other systems employed by issuers and verifiers of credentials to enable issuing, revoking, sharing and verification protocols.
  
  
• Individual’s Self-Sovereign Digital Wallet: A mobile application that allows individuals to claim and share their verifiable credentials, skills and experiences. This digital wallet is also available to Foundation members for white labeling and customization.
  
  
• Blockchain Utilization: The consensus network is operated by Foundation members, each running the immutable system of records that holds the cryptographic keys to validate credentials and ensure the secure, trusted exchange of data.
  
  
• Industry Standards Compliance: Velocity Network is compliant with industry standards, including W3C Verifiable Credentials, Open Badges, CLR, W3C DID and more.

"Integrating our HCM solution with Velocity Network’s live Testnet was simple, yet powerful,” said John Machado, Chief Technology Officer, Ultimate Software. “The straightforward integration interfaces provided by the Credential Agent and the Digital Wallet mobile app allowed us to innovate on self-sovereign credentials use cases rapidly with minimal blockchain technology knowledge. In addition, the high level of openness and collaboration during the POC allowed Ultimate Software and Velocity Network to influence each other’s technology code bases towards a more reliable solution."

Sathish Thirugnanavelu, Director, Technology Research at HireRight, shared, “As a founding member of Velocity Network Foundation and avid follower of SSI-based verifiable credentials space, HireRight is thrilled to have successfully helped contribute toward Velocity Network’s Testnet that seeks to validate new use cases and technical requirements for the background screening process. We are excited about this journey and the continued collaboration with the Velocity Network, and especially, our ability to bring innovative and transformative career credentials to our applicants and clients.”

In addition to the Testnet, the Velocity Network Foundation also welcomes new members, Emsi and Credential Engine.

Emsi, an affiliate of Strada Education Network, provides in-depth labor market data to professionals in higher education, economic development, workforce development and talent acquisition. Its Emsi Open Skills Library represents nearly 30,000 skills from hundreds of millions of job postings, resumes and professional profiles curated into a library that serves as a common language between job seekers, employers and educational programs.

Credential Engine, through its Credential Registry and Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL), provides a suite of web-based services to house up-to-date information about credentials, a common description language to enable credential comparability, and a platform to support customized applications to search and retrieve information about credentials. To date, there are over 15,000 credentials, 400 competency frameworks and 44,000 competencies in the Credential Registry as linked open data.

Velocity Network Foundation’s CEO, Dror Gurevich, commented, “Launching our Testnet is a major step toward getting Velocity Network to market in early 2021. We are pleased to have the Foundation’s growing membership, leading HCM and Ed Tech vendors, integrating and testing their applications in complex and broad labor-market use cases with multi-vendor interoperability, proving out core use cases and building out their own roadmaps for leveraging the Velocity Network for the future. These amazing, future-thinking organizations came together to champion and drive this vendor-neutral, public utility layer for the industry. We extend our invitation to the industry incumbents to join us as we move to change the world of work.”

About the Velocity Network Foundation

The Velocity Network Foundation is a nonprofit organization established by Velocity Career Labs, a developer of innovative blockchain technology. The Foundation exists to govern the use of the Velocity Network by all involved parties; continuously build the rulebook, a common framework that ensures operational consistency and legal clarity for every transaction; promote global adoption and support among stakeholders and constituents; guide the development of the decentralized protocols; and support research and development of applications and associated services, fostering a community of open-source developers.

For more information about Velocity Network Foundation and the Velocity Network, please visit us at www.velocitynetwork.foundation