In 2025, the digital identity landscape crossed a threshold.
As we enter 2026, the question for many organizations is not whether to adopt verifiable credentials, but how to deploy them at scale. Securely, compliantly, and with confidence.
At MATTR, our recent focus has been on strengthening the foundations that make large-scale adoption possible: giving you more control over issuance lifecycles, tightening the trust model for verification, simplifying ecosystem management, and refining user experiences across white-label applications.
Let’s take a look at what’s new, and what it enables.
Smarter issuance and lifecycle control
Granular control over who can issue what
Ecosystem administrators can now define which document types participants are permitted to issue at the IACA level.
This adds fine-grained governance over credential issuance, ensuring only approved participants can issue specific credential types. It reduces configuration complexity and strengthens compliance alignment, especially in multi-organization or regulated ecosystems.
Revocation when it matters most
Issuers using MATTR-managed IACAs can now revoke Document Signer Certificates (DSCs) and Status List Signer Certificates (SLSCs) through Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs).
This enables more timely and precise control over certificate lifecycles, critical for maintaining ecosystem security. If a signing certificate is compromised or retired, it can now be revoked swiftly, preserving trust without service disruption.
Managed Issuer role: Scaling issuance safely
The new Managed Issuer role introduces a way to delegate issuance responsibilities while maintaining governance boundaries.
Managed Issuers have the same operational capabilities as standard issuers but cannot create new IACAs or modify credential configurations.
This separation of duties helps larger ecosystems balance autonomy and control, allowing distributed issuance models without compromising policy consistency.
Credential Refresh (Beta Preview): Renew trust without friction
For credentials that expire or require regular renewal, the new Credential Refresh feature allows holders to obtain an updated version without re-authenticating.
This supports smoother, ongoing trust relationships between issuers and holders, ideal for credentials such as licenses, ID cards, or access passes that need periodic refresh. The result: a consistent, low-friction experience for users while maintaining full assurance for issuers.
End-to-End Encryption for credential issuance (Technical Preview)
Digital credential issuance often involves multiple systems, and when intermediaries are in play, privacy is paramount.
Our new End-to-End Encryption (E2E) capability ensures credential data and personally identifiable information (PII) remain encrypted from issuer to wallet. Even if intermediaries handle delivery, the data remains unreadable to them.
Verification and trustworthiness
Proximity verification with NFC
Android developers can now enable tap-to-verify experiences via NFC Device Engagement, as defined in ISO/IEC 18013-5:2021. This completes end-to-end NFC support across the MATTR Android Holder and Verifier SDKs, allowing seamless contactless verification for credentials like digital IDs, tickets, or passes.
These capabilities enable real-world, high-volume use cases that demand quick, intuitive interactions, whether at a border checkpoint, event gate, or retail counter.
Remote verification, anywhere
The Android SDK now supports remote app-to-app verification, complementing iOS support introduced earlier. This unlocks secure, native verification journeys across any channel or device, an essential capability for applications where browser-based handoffs are not ideal.
Fine-grained user authentication
Developers can require specific authentication methods, such as biometric or device passcode, for claiming and presenting different credentials.
By tailoring authentication requirements to credential sensitivity, organizations can ensure stronger protection for high-trust credentials while keeping everyday experiences fast and user-friendly.
Ecosystem and platform management
MATTR Portal: Your gateway to digital trust
MATTR Portal continues to evolve as the front door for managing, testing, and operationalizing MATTR’s capabilities, all without needing deep coding expertise.
Recent enhancements focus on reducing friction and giving administrators and developers immediate, visual control over their trust environments:
- Pre-authorized credential offers: You can now configure and test pre-authorized issuance flows directly within the Portal with no custom integrations required. This accelerates prototyping and validation, helping teams confidently move from testing to production.
- Enhanced event log visibility: Event logs now display the requestor identity, whether a user, client, or system, and can be filtered by requestor. This makes it easier to trace actions, audit activities, and troubleshoot issues across complex ecosystems.
- Simplified ecosystem setup: When uploading an IACA certificate to a participant, you can now assign document types directly. This change eliminates the need to manage separate configuration steps or tabs, making onboarding faster and clearer.
Together, these improvements make the Portal a true enabler, a low-friction environment to explore, configure, and validate MATTR VII capabilities in minutes, not days.
More insight, more control
Platform analytics events now include the originating IP address of verifiers and issuers interacting with the MATTR VII platform. Note that this enhancement provides additional context for monitoring, audit, and security review, but by no means tracks or stores the IP addresses of end users or credential holders.
This visibility supports better traceability and situational awareness, key for environments that must meet rigorous governance or regulatory standards.
White-label applications: From pilot to production
MATTR GO Hold: Seamless credential claiming
Claiming a credential is now faster and more intuitive.
Users can begin the issuance flow simply by scanning a QR code or following a deep link, with no need to open the app manually.
Once the credential is claimed, they’re taken directly to their wallet where it appears instantly.
This removes unnecessary steps and creates a fluid experience that builds user confidence.
MATTR GO Verify: Fast, clear, and trustworthy
Verification is now smoother and more transparent than ever.
- Faster camera startup and switching: Optimizations under the hood significantly reduce load times and make switching between cameras instantaneous.
- Reliable torch control: The torch now behaves predictably when switching views or moving the app to the background, improving usability in varied lighting environments.
- Safer verification experiences: When credentials originate from untrusted or invalid issuers, MATTR GO Verify now displays a clear warning and blurs all claims by default. Users can still choose to review the information, but only with explicit consent.
This change builds confidence and reinforces privacy for verifiers in sensitive contexts like government, travel, and financial services, where assurance and discretion go hand in hand.
What it all means: Building for the decisive year ahead
Every improvement in this release, from certificate revocation and encryption to ecosystem visibility and NFC verification, strengthens the foundations for scalable, secure, and interoperable digital trust.
Together, these capabilities support real-world adoption: ecosystems that can launch confidently, adapt quickly, and grow sustainably.
As we shared in our recent LinkedIn perspective, last year was about laying the rails, establishing standards, building interoperability, and proving scalability.
2026 is different. It’s decisive.
This is the year digital credentials become part of everyday systems, and the organizations that move now will shape the experiences users come to trust.
At MATTR, we’re here to help you take that next step with clarity, confidence, and collaboration.
You don’t need every answer to start. But you do need to start.
Let’s move. Together.
