Customer story
SafewireVU Credentials

How Safewire uses VU Credentials

Safewire is a payments app for market stalls, cafés, online sellers and their customers. Behind every check in the app, VU Credentials does the verifying.

Maya checks her ID once in the Safewire app. Phone, email, identity and over-18 cards arrive in her wallet, issued by VU Credentials. At a shop she scans a code and taps Approve, and the shop learns only that she is over 18: no name, no birthday.

The idea in one line

A credential is a digital card in your phone that proves one thing about you, and nobody can fake it, copy it or quietly change it.

“Over 18.” “This email is real.” “This business is registered.” Each card carries a digital signature, and VU Credentials is who signs it. Safewire decides who gets a card; VU makes it and checks it.

Three ways Safewire uses it

The same idea every time: check once, carry the proof, show it with a tap.

For customers

Verify once, use anywhere

No more uploading your passport every time someone needs to know you are you.

  1. 1The customer checks their ID once in the Safewire app.
  2. 2Phone, Email, Identity and Over 18 cards land in their wallet.
  3. 3At a counter, they scan a code and tap Approve.
  4. 4The shop sees a green tick for "over 18". Not their name, not their birthday.
For merchants

Tickets nobody can fake

A screenshot can be shared. A Safewire pass only works from the wallet it was issued to.

  1. 1The merchant makes a ticket, coupon, membership or punch card in minutes.
  2. 2Customers add it to their wallet for free, or buy it.
  3. 3At the door, staff scan it: "Verified — this pass is now used."
  4. 4A screenshot, a copy or a second entry gets refused.
Harbour Night Market makes an entry ticket in the Safewire portal. A customer adds it to their wallet. At the door one scan verifies it and uses it up, and scanning it again is refused. Punch cards work the same way.
For business owners

Your business, verified

The business check happens once, and the proof lives in the owner's pocket.

  1. 1The owner applies in the Safewire app and uploads their documents.
  2. 2Once approved, a Business card lands in their wallet.
  3. 3Verified businesses can take payments and be listed on Safewire's map.
  4. 4Other businesses can check it's real with one scan.
Harbour Coffee Co. applies once in the Safewire app. Once approved, a Business card lands in the owner's wallet, so the business can take payments, be listed on Safewire's map and restore the card on a new phone. A supplier then confirms the business with one scan.

What happens behind the scenes

Three parts, each with one job.

Safewire

Checks the person or business

With a text code, an ID and selfie, or business documents.

VU Credentials

Makes and signs the card

Then sends it straight to the wallet.

The wallet

Keeps the card safe

And shows it only when its owner taps Approve.

When someone scans a card

VU checks it is genuine, in date and not cancelled, and gives the shop a plain yes or no.

When something changes

A used ticket, a removed team member, a new phone number: Safewire cancels the old card with one call, and it stops working.

What it took Safewire

No change to the wallet app

When Safewire moved onto VU, its wallet app needed no update at all.

About six lines of server code

Plus a new API key. That was the whole switch on Safewire's side.

Open standards

Cards follow the W3C and OpenID standards, not a format only one company understands.

Want to do what Safewire does?

Start free with 100 credentials a month. No credit card needed.