# DIVOC

> Source: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/divoc
> research date 2026-06-03 · extracted at 2026-10-06
> Publisher: Barcoder — encyclopedia of QR, barcode and payment-code standards

Specifications:
- [DIVOC — Introduction (eGov Foundation)](https://divoc.digit.org/)
- [DIVOC's Native COVID-19 Certificate Specification](https://divoc.digit.org/platform/divocs-verifiable-certificate-features-2.0/divocs-native-covid-19-certificate-specification)

## Overview

**DIVOC** (**Digital Infrastructure for Verifiable Open Credentialing**) is an open-source platform that lets governments digitally orchestrate large-scale health campaigns — vaccination, testing, and certification — and issue **verifiable digital certificates** at national scale <sup>[1][1]</sup>. The certificates are based on the **W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model 1.0** and are delivered as a **[QR Code](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/qr-code)** that can be printed, sent via SMS, or exported to a digital wallet <sup>[2][2]</sup>.

DIVOC is built and maintained by India's **eGov Foundation**, released as **MIT-licensed** open-source software, and positioned as a **digital public good** ("built in India for the world") <sup>[2][2]</sup>. Its flagship deployment is India's **CoWIN** platform, through which it issued **over one billion** COVID-19 vaccination certificates <sup>[3][3]</sup>.

## History

**2021 — Built for India's vaccination drive.** DIVOC was created to issue verifiable digital vaccination certificates at the scale of India's national COVID-19 program, integrated into the Government of India's **CoWIN** platform <sup>[3][3]</sup>.

**October 2021 — One billion certificates.** eGov Foundation announced that **one billion vaccination certificates** had been issued via DIVOC on the CoWIN platform — among the largest verifiable-credential issuances ever recorded <sup>[3][3]</sup>.

**Open-source / digital-public-good positioning.** DIVOC is hosted and maintained by the **eGov Foundation** under an **MIT license**, supported by multilateral funding institutions and global contributors, and offered to other countries as reusable digital public infrastructure <sup>[2][2]</sup>.

**International adoption.** Beyond India, DIVOC has been used to issue digital vaccination certificates in **Sri Lanka** and the **Philippines**, with stated expansion plans across South/Southeast Asia and Africa <sup>[2][2]</sup>.

## Technical specification

DIVOC certificates are **W3C Verifiable Credentials** <sup>[2][2]</sup>:

- **Data model** — based on the **W3C Verifiable Credential Data Model 1.0**, expressed as **JSON-LD**; DIVOC's vaccination certificate uses the **JSON-JWT** VC type <sup>[2][2]</sup>.
- **Content** — vaccination data plus holder information (name, address, date of birth, gender) <sup>[2][2]</sup>.
- **Signing** — each implementing country uses **centralized signing keys controlled by the national authority**; there is no single global trust registry, so adopting countries run their own trust frameworks <sup>[2][2]</sup>.
- **Carrier** — the signed credential is rendered as a **[QR Code](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/qr-code)** for offline verification, printable on paper and embeddable in apps <sup>[2][2]</sup>.
- **Distribution** — printed at vaccination sites, downloadable via SMS link, or exported to consumer health wallets / digital lockers through authenticated APIs (e.g. Mobile-OTP-protected) <sup>[2][2]</sup>.

Because DIVOC predates a single finalized cross-border spec, **adopter countries publish their own variant specifications**; DIVOC credentials were tested for compatibility with **[EU DCC](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/eu-dcc)** and **[ICAO VDS-NC](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/icao-vds-nc)** formats to enable interoperability <sup>[2][2]</sup>.

## Use cases

- **National vaccination certification** — the core use; proof of COVID-19 vaccination issued at population scale (India's CoWIN) <sup>[3][3]</sup>.
- **Test result certificates** — DIVOC supports certification beyond vaccination as a general health-campaign platform <sup>[1][1]</sup>.
- **Cross-border recognition** — interoperability work with EU DCC and ICAO VDS-NC aimed to make DIVOC certificates acceptable for international travel <sup>[2][2]</sup>.
- **Reusable health-credential infrastructure** — offered as a digital public good for any government running large health campaigns <sup>[1][1], [2][2]</sup>.

## Implementations

- **Documentation / specs** — [egovernments/divoc-docs][4] — 3★, last active 2023. The maintained DIVOC documentation repository under the eGov Foundation org <sup>[4][4]</sup>.
- **Platform docs** — `divoc.digit.org` and `divoc.egov.org.in` host the platform introduction, certificate features (v2.0), and native COVID-19 certificate specification <sup>[1][1], [5][5]</sup>.
- **CoWIN integration (India)** — the largest production deployment, with verification via the government's `verify.cowin.gov.in` service <sup>[3][3]</sup>.
- **National deployments** — Sri Lanka and the Philippines among adopters <sup>[2][2]</sup>.

*Note: DIVOC's original monorepo (formerly `egovernments/DIVOC`) is no longer publicly resolvable at that path; the eGov Foundation org currently hosts `divoc-docs` and supporting repositories.*

## Comparison

| | **DIVOC** | **[EU DCC](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/eu-dcc)** | **[SMART Health Cards](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/smart-health-cards)** | **[ICAO VDS-NC](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/icao-vds-nc)** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data model | **W3C VC (JSON-LD / JSON-JWT)** | CWT / CBOR + COSE | W3C VC as JWS over FHIR | signed JSON/CBOR seal |
| Encoding | JSON-LD in QR | Base45 + ZLIB, `HC1:` | numeric `shc:/`, Deflate | signed JSON in QR/Data Matrix |
| Signature | issuer-controlled (national keys) | ES256 / PS256 | ES256 | ES256 / ES384 |
| Governance | **eGov Foundation (India), MIT, digital public good** | EU eHealth Network → WHO | VCI consortium / HL7 | ICAO (UN body) |
| Trust model | per-country, no global registry | EU Gateway CSCA/DSC PKI | issuer JWKS + VCI directory | eMRTD CSCA PKI |
| Geography | India, Sri Lanka, Philippines | EU + 51 countries | US, Canada, others | ICAO member states |

DIVOC's distinguishing trait is its identity as **open-source, MIT-licensed national infrastructure** designed for reuse by any government, paired with the **W3C VC / JSON-LD** data model — versus the EU DCC's binary CBOR/COSE format and ICAO's MRTD-rooted seal. Its weakness relative to EU DCC is the absence of a unified cross-border trust registry; each country runs its own <sup>[2][2]</sup>.

## Fun facts

**One of the largest VC issuances in history.** Through CoWIN, DIVOC issued **over one billion** verifiable vaccination certificates — a single open-source platform producing credentials at a scale rivaling entire national identity systems <sup>[3][3]</sup>.

## Status

DIVOC remains an actively documented open-source platform maintained by the eGov Foundation and positioned as reusable digital public infrastructure for health campaigns beyond COVID-19 <sup>[1][1], [2][2]</sup>. Its peak activity was India's pandemic vaccination drive; post-pandemic it continues as a general verifiable-credentialing toolkit, with its codebase reorganized under the eGov Foundation's GitHub org and its specs hosted on the DIVOC/DIGIT documentation sites <sup>[4][4], [5][5]</sup>.

## Sources

[1]: https://divoc.digit.org/
[2]: https://www.lfph.io/2021/10/13/divoc/
[3]: https://egov.org.in/news-and-media/1-billion-vaccination-certificates-issued-via-divoc-on-the-cowin-platform-india/
[4]: https://github.com/egovernments/divoc-docs
[5]: https://divoc.digit.org/platform/divocs-verifiable-certificate-features-2.0/divocs-native-covid-19-certificate-specification
[6]: https://divoc.egov.org.in/one-billion-vaccination-certificates-issued-via-divoc-on-the-cowin-platform-in-india/

1. [Introduction to DIVOC — divoc.digit.org][1]
2. [DIVOC COVID Certificate Summary — Linux Foundation Public Health, 2021][2]
3. [1 billion vaccination certificates issued via DIVOC on CoWIN — eGov Foundation][3]
4. [egovernments/divoc-docs — GitHub][4]
5. [DIVOC's Native COVID-19 Certificate Specification — divoc.digit.org][5]
6. [One billion vaccination certificates via DIVOC — divoc.egov.org.in][6]

## Deployments

_No country reports mention this standard by name._

## Regions / aggregations not mapped to a single country

- Universal