Microsoft Entra Verified ID: The Future of Trust (and Why You Should Care) – Part 1 of 2

In a world where trust is the new currency, identity is your exchange rate. Whether you’re onboarding employees, authenticating customers, or granting access to sensitive systems, identity proofing must be fast, secure, and privacy-preserving. Microsoft Entra Verified ID delivers exactly that: a decentralised, standards-based way to issue, hold, and verify digital credentials that user’s control—and organizations can rely on.

What is Microsoft Entra Verified ID?

Verified ID is a cloud-native platform for issuing, storing, and verifying Verifiable Credentials (VCs) backed by Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs). It’s built on open standards including DID, VC, OIDC, and JWT, and is designed for interoperability with other wallets, issuers, and verifiers—so you’re not locked into a single vendor or ecosystem.

Under the hood, the Issuer and Verifier are exposed as API services—no virtual machines required—so you can integrate them into your apps and workflows with minimal friction. There’s also an Admin API for programmatic configuration, making it straightforward to automate credential lifecycles at scale.

Why is Verified ID different?

  • Versatile trust systems Verified ID supports today’s leading DID methods—did:ion (built on the Bitcoin anchoring layer) and did:web (PKI-backed)—and is agnostic enough to adopt more in the future. This gives architects freedom to align cryptographic trust with their risk profiles and regulatory environments.
  • Designed for Azure, built for interoperability Verified ID works with the broader Azure ecosystem, including Entitlement Management and “login with a VC” (passwordless) patterns, while remaining standards-based so credentials can be used beyond Microsoft boundaries.
  • User-controlled and portable Users can export credentials and protect them with a recovery phrase, storing them wherever they choose. If a device is replaced, the user doesn’t lose their identity. That’s privacy by design and portability in practice.
  • Developer-first integration Because Issuer and Verifier are API services, you can drop Verified ID into web or mobile apps, use QR flows for issuance/presentation, and orchestrate everything through CI/CD like any modern service.

Benefits You Can Quantify

  • Enhanced security posture: Reduce phishing, account takeover, and unauthorized access by moving from static secrets to cryptographic credentials and optional biometric checks.
  • Streamlined processes: Automate verification and onboarding, eliminating manual document collection and error-prone checks.
  • Better user experience: Fast, reusable, privacy-preserving credentials that just work—no paper, fewer passwords, less friction.

How it works (high-level)

  • Issuance: Your Issuer Web App gathers user data (from Graph or your own systems), calls the Verified ID API, and presents a QR code. The user’s wallet requests a VC, the API signs it, and the wallet stores it.
  • Verification: Your Verifier Web App requests proof, the wallet shares the VC, the API resolves the issuer’s DID from the trust system (e.g., ION or web), validates the signature, and returns verified attributes to your app or downstream services.

To be continued in Part 2: In the next post, we’ll explore practical use cases, architecture, and a proven delivery plan to help you realize the benefits of Verified ID in your organization. Further reading: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/verified-id/decentralized-identifier-overview

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