Insights
Notes on verification, consent and data that stays yours
When an AI agent asks for your data: delegation with limits
An AI agent acting for a person should hold a narrow, expiring, countable slice of their consent, never their credentials. Delegated capabilities on Essence are built that way.
13 October 2026One set of sharing terms, many councilsCouncils on the same service write similar data-sharing agreements again and again. On Essence, the terms such an agreement sets are configuration, so one set written once can be applied by many organisations.10 October 2026
Over State Pension age, not a date of birth: proportionate sharing in practiceA service that needs to know someone is over State Pension age rarely needs their date of birth. Essence passes the answer, not the record: only the fields asked for, or only a signed answer.10 October 2026
Telling services once: a family-held record for the early yearsFamilies tell health visitors, nurseries, GPs and councils the same things because each service keeps its own copy. A record the family holds, shared field by field under consent, lets them tell it once.10 October 2026
The people layer of data-sharing infrastructureInfrastructure answers how data travels between organisations. Data about people also needs a record of whose it is, why it is shared, on what basis, and who relied on it. That is the layer Essence builds.10 October 2026
Consent with a purpose, and a receiptA consent record helps later only if it says what it was for, until when and what the person was shown. Essence grants now carry a purpose, a fixed end, a legal basis where declared, and that context.6 October 2026
Proving when as well as what: trusted timestamps and preservation evidenceA signature shows what was agreed, but its algorithms age. Essence keeps long-term evidence apart, can have it dated by an outside authority and renewed, and exports it for anyone to check offline.2 October 2026
Getting ready for post-quantum cryptographyA quantum computer threatens key exchange and signatures, not vault content. Every encrypted record on Essence names its algorithm, and in September we added a post-quantum signature for long-lived evidence.30 September 2026
Supplier verification under the UAE's new VAT rulesThe UAE's new rules put the burden on the buyer to show it checked its suppliers before recovering input VAT. Essence puts each supplier's status in front of the payment, and keeps a record of every decision.24 September 2026
Selective disclosure and predicate proofs: what each one showsSelective disclosure shows a verifier only the fields it asks for; a predicate check shows only the answer. Essence has built both, and is exact about who sees the value behind each.17 September 2026
Digital trust goes beyond regulation: six dimensionsA Dubai panel argued that digital trust goes beyond regulation, across six dimensions. Essence builds several of them into its architecture, starting from a server with no key to your content.10 September 2026
Recovering a vault without a back door: guardians and recovery phrasesEssence holds no key to your vault, so there is no reset for anyone to abuse. Since our September release, a 24-word recovery phrase that never leaves your device reopens it.4 September 2026
Reusable attestations in Europe: what qualified attestations changeUnder eIDAS 2.0, a qualified attestation carries a legal presumption of accuracy across the EU. Our review recommends that Essence help people hold and present them, rather than issue them.27 August 2026
Speaking open standards: OpenID4VCI, OpenID4VP and SD-JWT credentialsA credential is worth more when any wallet built to open specifications can read it. Our August release built the groundwork for Essence to issue and verify credentials over OpenID4VCI and OpenID4VP.18 August 2026
Opening a vault with a passkeyIn our August release we built a way for a passkey to sign you in and open your Essence vault in one step, with no password. We hold only a locked copy of the vault key, and we cannot open it.6 August 2026
Separate countries, one network: how instances trust each other without sharing dataIn Essence's architecture, personal data belongs on country instances, not in a central store. In July we built the means for those instances to trust each other on terms that are recorded, checked and withdrawable.28 July 2026
Fields, not files: why we share data one field at a timePeople are often asked for a whole document when an organisation needs two or three facts from it. Essence makes the named field, not the file, the unit of every share and every consent.14 July 2026