Interoperable
A compliant reader with the right trust list can verify a seal issued by any accredited party — a diploma from one country checked by an employer in another.
Trust & authenticity
What is a Visible Digital Seal?
A Visible Digital Seal (VDS) is a secured 2D barcode that guarantees the authenticity and integrity of the data it contains, based on the ISO/IEC 22376 standard. BioSeal is id3's VDS solution — and it adds a biometric layer.
The idea
A digital signature on a physical surface
Think of a VDS as a sealed digital envelope you can print. It contains the essential data and, crucially, a cryptographic signature from the issuer. Anyone with a compliant reader can open the envelope and confirm two things at once.
Authenticity
The code was created by the entity it claims to come from — your bank, a government, a university or an employer.
Integrity
The data has not been altered. Even a single changed field invalidates the signature, so tampering is impossible to hide.
The difference
Standard QR code vs. Visible Digital Seal
A plain QR code is an open data container. A VDS is a signed document.
| Capability | Standard QR | Visible Digital Seal |
|---|---|---|
| Stores data | ||
| Proves the issuer's identity | ||
| Tamper-evident | ||
| Verifies offline | ||
| Can bind a biometric (BioSeal) |
The standard
Built on ISO/IEC 22376
A VDS is not a proprietary black box. It is defined by an international standard, so issuers and verifiers interoperate across organizations and borders.
Efficient
Compact MessagePack encoding and short ECDSA signatures keep the seal small enough to print or show on screen.
Versatile
First used for travel documents and visas, VDS now secures diplomas, permits, vehicle registration, product passports and URLs.
Where BioSeal fits
Governance, scheme, solution
The VDS ecosystem separates responsibilities across three independent levels. BioSeal sits at the solution level.
1
VDSIC — Governance
The VDS International Council sets policy, standards and interoperability rules and accredits scheme operators. It governs who may run a scheme; it is not itself the verification root.
2
Scheme operator — e.g. Otentik Trust Network
Runs a concrete trust framework under accreditation: signs and publishes the trust lists a verifier chains to, and curates the manifests.
3
BioSeal — Solution
Issues and verifies the seals via API, SDK and CLI. Scheme-agnostic, with id3's biometric technology built in.
Seal trust into everything you issue
Talk to our team about issuing biometric, tamper-evident Visible Digital Seals — verifiable anywhere, even offline.