Identity & eligibility
Signals asserting that a person or institution meets specific criteria — for example, being a customer, beneficiary, employee or authorised counterpart — expressed in interoperable formats.
Pillar • Identity & Governance
← Back to domains & pillarsIdentity & governance, treated as signals between systems.
Interlayer focuses on identity, credential and governance-related messages that move between institutions and programmes. The aim is to align how these signals are expressed and interpreted without taking over identity schemes, mandates or policy decisions.
Core questions
How can identity, eligibility and mandate signals be exchanged across systems so that each actor can trust them, without centralising personal data or governance authority?
Interlayer’s role
Interpret and translate structured identity- and governance-related messages between existing schemes, registries and systems — staying at the message layer only.
Constraints
Non-custodial, sovereign-neutral and privacy-aware. No new identity platform, no role as a root of trust, no central store of personal records.
Where interoperability questions appear
Identity, credentials and mandate signals across institutions.
Identity & Governance interoperability involves signals about who an actor is, what they are allowed to do and under which mandate. Interlayer helps these signals travel between systems without redefining the underlying schemes.
Roles & mandates
Messages that describe who is acting on behalf of whom and under what authority — for example, institutional roles, programme mandates or delegated powers between agencies.
Governance & oversight
Structured signals between governance bodies and operators — policies, constraints, approvals and reporting expectations — carried as messages rather than embedded in a single platform.
Message flows
Example identity & governance flows.
These examples show how translator patterns can support existing identity schemes, registries and governance arrangements without taking them over.
Flow 1
Eligibility signals between systems- 1. An eligibility system confirms that a person meets criteria for a programme or service.
- 2. The confirmation is represented as a structured message aligned with the agreed schema.
- 3. Interlayer’s translator maps this message into the receiving system’s expected format.
- 4. The receiving system uses the signal under its own rules; personal records stay local.
- 5. Audit teams can see how the signal was expressed and interpreted at each side.
Flow 2
Mandate & role assertions- 1. An institution issues a signed, structured statement that a specific team or system acts under a defined mandate.
- 2. Different counterparties consume this mandate information via their own formats and APIs.
- 3. The translator interprets the mandate statement and produces outputs aligned with each counterparty.
- 4. Governance control stays with the issuing institution; Interlayer only carries the message logic.
- 5. Changes to the mandate are propagated through updated messages, not centralised configuration.
Flow 3
Governance constraints as interoperable messages- 1. A governance body defines constraints (for example, limits on data sharing or transaction types).
- 2. These constraints are expressed as structured messages that can be interpreted by participating systems.
- 3. Interlayer’s translator maps the governance messages into technical policies or configuration artefacts for each system.
- 4. Systems apply the constraints locally; no central enforcement platform is required.
- 5. Oversight teams can trace which governance messages led to which technical settings.
Translator role
Align identity & governance signals, not identity systems.
Identity & Governance work emphasises careful boundaries: translator logic helps systems interpret and trust each other’s signals without replacing existing identity schemes or governance bodies.
Interpret
Understand the meaning, scope and constraints of identity attributes, credentials, mandates and governance messages as they exist today in participating systems.
Translate
Map these signals into forms that other systems can consume — for example ISO- or JSON-aligned structures — with explicit field-level mappings and validation checks.
Align
Help institutions maintain consistent interpretations of identity and governance signals across systems, so that eligibility, access and governance outcomes remain predictable.
Assurance, privacy & governance
Identity & Governance scenarios require particular care around privacy, consent and oversight. Translator work is therefore scoped and documented so that data-protection officers, governance teams and regulators can understand what is happening at the message layer.
- • Separation between message translation and identity proofing or credential issuance.
- • Options to work with pseudonymised or tokenised identifiers where appropriate.
- • Clear documentation of which attributes are exchanged and under which legal basis.
- • Ability to host translator components inside institutional or trusted environments.
Typical starting points
- • Cross-programme eligibility checks involving multiple identity or registry systems.
- • Governance frameworks that need to be reflected as technical constraints across systems.
- • Interoperability labs exploring portable credentials or cross-border identity use-cases.
Next step
Explore an Identity & Governance translator pattern under your existing schemes.
If you are considering cross-system eligibility checks, mandate signals or governance messaging, Interlayer can help define a message-layer pattern that respects your identity frameworks and legal obligations.