Holder

In W3C Verifiable Credentials terminology, the holder is whoever has possession of a credential and can present it to a verifier. The holder is often but not always the same entity as the credential's subject. For example: a credential about a child might have the child as subject and a parent as holder; a credential about an employee might be held by both the employee and (in an audit context) the employer.

The holder / subject / issuer / verifier four-role model is what distinguishes VCs from a simple signed document. A VC ecosystem has explicit wallets for holders, explicit presentation protocols for verifiers, and explicit schemas for subjects.

For LearnCoin, the holder is typically the recipient — a student, professional, or trainee who earned the credential. We do not ship a dedicated LearnCoin wallet today; credentials are held via the public /c/<id> URL the recipient shares, plus whatever wallet (Blockcerts native, Apple Wallet via PDF, etc.) they choose to use.