Standard for the 1Cert Identifier

Scope

Applies to every record published in the 1Cert.org trust registry, including entities, credentials, licences and accreditations, across all participating jurisdictions.

Requirements

Every record published in the registry is assigned a 1Cert Identifier at the point of publication. The identifier is persistent for the life of the record: it is not reused, reassigned or altered when a record’s status changes.

The identifier follows the structure 1C-[record type]-[jurisdiction]-[sequence], for example 1C-ORG-SG-000001. The record-type segment indicates whether the identifier refers to an entity, credential, licence or accreditation record. The jurisdiction segment reflects the jurisdiction under which the record was recorded. The sequence segment is a zero-padded, monotonically increasing number allocated in order of publication within that record type and jurisdiction.

An identifier specimen shown for illustration is clearly labelled as a format example and is distinguishable from a live registry record.

Methodology

Identifiers are allocated at the point a record is first published to the registry, by the recognition authority responsible for that jurisdiction. Allocation is recorded in the registry’s internal publication log, which is the authoritative source for identifier sequencing.

Governance

Amendments to the identifier format are subject to the amendment procedure set out in the institutional charter. A proposed change to an in-use format requires a consultation period before adoption and a defined transition arrangement for identifiers already issued under the prior format.