Hyperledger Indy

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Hyperledger Indy is an open source project focused on decentralized digital identity (identity and access), providing a distributed ledger, protocols, and tools designed for verifiable, privacy-preserving identity management. It is hosted under the Hyperledger umbrella and governed through LF Decentralized Trust, which coordinates open source efforts around digital trust infrastructure. Indy targets use cases where independent entities need to issue, hold, and verify credentials without reliance on a single centralized Identity Provider (IdP).

The project centers on a ledger optimized for storing decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and public data needed to support verifiable credentials (digital identity infrastructure). Rather than recording personal data directly on-chain, Indy focuses on registering identifiers, schemas, credential definitions, and related cryptographic artifacts. This design supports a model where personally identifying information and attributes remain off-ledger, under control of the identity holder, while the ledger provides a shared, tamper-evident source of truth for verification material.

Hyperledger Indy includes components that implement cryptographic protocols for zero-knowledge proofs and selective disclosure (security and privacy). These capabilities enable credential holders to prove possession of attributes, or that attributes satisfy certain predicates, without exposing the full data. Such privacy-preserving proofs align with self-sovereign identity patterns, where individuals or organizations manage their own identifiers and credentials and only reveal what is necessary in a given transaction.

Enterprises and public sector organizations use Indy-based networks to support cross-organization identity verification flows (enterprise identity and trust frameworks). Typical deployments involve issuers, such as government agencies, universities, or businesses, creating and signing credentials; holders, such as individuals or devices, storing those credentials in digital wallets; and verifiers, such as service providers, checking proofs against data recorded on the Indy ledger. This pattern enables reusable digital credentials for onboarding, access control, compliance checks, and other trust-related workflows.

Within the broader Hyperledger and LF Decentralized Trust ecosystem, Indy positions as a foundation for interoperable digital trust ecosystems (interoperability and governance). It is often referenced alongside related identity and credential exchange projects in the same ecosystem, with Indy providing the ledger and cryptographic basis for DIDs and verifiable credentials. Its design supports governance frameworks where multiple organizations collaborate to define rules for participation, transaction formats, and trust assurance levels on top of a shared ledger.

For enterprise technical stakeholders, Hyperledger Indy represents a project in the category of decentralized identity platforms and Verifiable Credential (VC) infrastructure (identity and access). It offers a dedicated ledger, protocol support for privacy-preserving credential verification, and integration points for digital wallets and agents. These characteristics align Indy with architectures that separate identity proofing, credential issuance, and verification responsibilities across different entities while relying on open, auditable, and extensible trust infrastructure.