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Version: v0.4.x

AnonCreds RS

AnonCreds RS is a direct implementation of the AnonCreds V1.0 specification that provides functionality like; creating a schema object, creating a credential definition object, creating a credential, verifying a proof presentation and much more.

caution

Support for the AnonCreds RS library in Aries Framework JavaScript is currently experimental. We recommend new projects to use AnonCreds RS from the start, and also to migrate existing projects to AnonCreds, from the Indy Sdk. However, projects may experience some issues. If you encounter any issues, please open an issue.

Currently, there are few limitations to using AnonCreds RS.

  • When running in Node.JS, only Node.JS 18 is supported for now. See Supported Node.JS versions for AnonCreds RS
  • Install scripts rely on bash command substitution to get the proper binaries for each system architecture and platform. Therefore, if you are under Windows, you must configure npm or yarn to use a bash-compliant shell (e.g. npm config set script-shell "C:\\Program Files\\git\\bin\\bash.exe")

Installing AnonCreds RS​

When using Aries Framework JavaScript with AnonCreds RS, there are a few extra dependencies that need to be installed. We need to install @hyperledger/anoncreds package, which contains the interfaces, and @hyperledger/anoncreds-rs package which is an implementation which depends on a wrapper of anoncreds-rs. Secondly, we need to add native bindings for the specific platform @hyperledger/anoncreds-<platform>. Currently there are bindings for Node.JS, as @hyperledger/anoncreds-nodejs, and React Native as @hyperlegder/anoncreds-react-native.

yarn add @aries-framework/anoncreds@^0.4.0 @aries-framework/anoncreds-rs@^0.4.0 @hyperledger/anoncreds-nodejs@^0.1.0

Adding AnonCreds RS to the agent​

After installing the dependencies, we should register both the AnonCreds and AnonCredsRs module on the agent.

import { Agent } from '@aries-framework/core'
import { agentDependencies } from '@aries-framework/node'
import { AskarModule } from '@aries-framework/askar'
import { ariesAskar } from '@hyperledger/aries-askar-nodejs'

import { anoncreds } from '@hyperledger/anoncreds-nodejs'
import { AnonCredsModule } from '@aries-framework/anoncreds'
import { AnonCredsRsModule } from '@aries-framework/anoncreds-rs'
import { IndyVdrAnonCredsRegistry } from '@aries-framework/indy-vdr'

const agent = new Agent({
  config,
  dependencies: agentDependencies,
  modules: {
    // Register the Askar module on the agent
    // This is included as we need a wallet on our agent
    askar: new AskarModule({
      ariesAskar,
    }),
    anoncredsRs: new AnonCredsRsModule({
      anoncreds,
    }),
    anoncreds: new AnonCredsModule({
      // Here we add an Indy VDR registry as an example, any AnonCreds registry
      // can be used
      registries: [new IndyVdrAnonCredsRegistry()],
    }),
  },
})

Configuration​

As you can see, the AnonCreds module takes a list of registry modules. These modules will be used to resolve the AnonCreds objects. We recommend Indy VDR as an AnonCreds registry for Hyperledger Indy networks, but Indy SDK can also be used.

Supported Node.JS versions for AnonCreds RS​

Due to an issue in ref-napi (which is used in the Node.JS bindings for AnonCreds RS), performance for AnonCreds RS in Node.JS is not as expected. A patched version for ref-napi has been published that fixes this issue, but this only works in Node.JS 18+.

To use AnonCreds RS in Node.JS, make sure you're using Node.JS 18 and patch the ref-napi package to point towards @2060.io/ref-napi in your package.json:

Using NPM overrides we can point the ref-napi package to @2060.io/ref-napi.

{
  "overrides": {
    "ref-napi": "npm:@2060.io/ref-napi"
  }
}
info

See the following issues for more information on the performance botleneck