Presenting proofs to a service

When a service needs to know something about you — are you over 18, are you verified to Standard — it sends a structured request to your wallet. Nothing happens without you: the request sits in your wallet until you approve or decline, and the service receives nothing in the meantime.

Every request shows the same four things, and it is worth checking each one every time:

• Who is asking — the service's registered name. Unregistered services cannot make requests at all.
• What would be proven — the specific proof or claim, in plain language: “Over 18 — yes/no”, never “your identity”.
• What they will never see — the request spells out what stays private (your birth date, your documents).
• The purpose and expiry — why they are asking, and how long the consent would last if you set a time limit.

Decline, and the service learns only that the request was declined. Approve, and the proof is generated and sent — a cryptographic result, not your data. For yes/no questions this is usually a zero-knowledge proof: the service can verify the answer mathematically but learns nothing beyond it.

Every approval lands in your consent history with a timestamp, visible in the wallet app and at my.identity.org.au. If you granted a time-limited consent, it expires on its own; you can also revoke it early at any time.

• Unexpected request from a service you were not using: decline it. Requests cost you nothing to decline.
• Vague purpose (“account requirements”): decline, and treat it as a signal about the service.
• Repeated requests for the same proof: a service should store its answer, not re-ask. Consider revoking its access.