> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.yoid.me/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is YoID?

> A youth identity protocol powering verified pathways from learning to employment.

## The Problem

Youth complete training programmes and build real skills — but proving it to employers means PDF certificates that are slow to verify, easy to forge, and impossible to share selectively. Employers spend weeks on manual verification. Learning partners can't track outcomes. Impact partners can't prove results to funders.

## What YoID Does

YoID is the shared trust layer of the YOMA ecosystem. It connects learning partners, youth, impact partners, and employers through **verifiable digital credentials** — cryptographically signed, tamper-proof, and instantly verifiable.

## Three Roles

The ecosystem operates around three roles:

| Role                                  | Who       | What they do                                                                                                                        |
| ------------------------------------- | --------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Learning & Impact Partners**        | Issuers   | **Issue** verifiable credentials to youth as milestones are reached — course completions, programme participation, impact outcomes. |
| **Youth**                             | Holders   | **Hold** credentials in a digital wallet. Control who sees what. Build a verifiable CV that follows them across the ecosystem.      |
| **Employers & Opportunity Providers** | Verifiers | **Verify** youth credentials instantly. Reduce hiring costs. Get richer candidate profiles than a PDF could ever provide.           |

## How Trust Flows

1. A learning partner (e.g. Umuzi) creates a **credential template** defining what a "Web Development Completion" credential contains
2. When Thandi completes the programme, Umuzi **issues** her a credential that lands in her digital wallet
3. Thandi applies for a role through an employment provider
4. The employer sends a **verification request** — Thandi's wallet prompts her to consent
5. Thandi selectively shares her completion credential — without revealing attributes she considers private
6. The employer receives **cryptographic proof** that the credential is authentic and hasn't been tampered with

## Built on DIDx:Me

YoID is powered by [DIDx:Me](https://www.didx.co.za) — the same credential infrastructure, the same REST API, repositioned for the learning-to-earning context. If you've integrated with DIDx:Me before, you already know the API. The difference is the ecosystem around it.

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Meet the Actors" icon="users" href="/ecosystem/actors">
    Understand who participates in the ecosystem and what each partner needs
  </Card>

  <Card title="Credentials Explained" icon="id-card" href="/ecosystem/credentials-explained">
    Learn how verifiable credentials work — without the jargon
  </Card>
</CardGroup>