Ayra Community,
TL;DR:
- Ayra Cards – that’s a big focus right now, and members are leaning in hard – demos are coming, and the architecture is solidifying.
- Agentic AI – members are all over this, and we are working to see how we can help share your stories. An example is below in the Business thread.
- Trust Registry Query Protocol – TRQP v2.0 is heading to public review shortly and we are getting lined up with that. More below in the Technology section.
Hello everyone!
Ayra Cards
I am reusing some of last month’s content because it has helped explain what is going on with Ayra Cards.
The Ayra Trust Network has three main components: a network of Trust Registries (Ayra’s job is primarily the registry-of-registries function that wires ecosystems together); our Conformance Test Suite; and our Type Catalogue.
The thing about Ayra Cards that excites me is that it builds and exercises all three of those components – and allows our member ecosystems to step into sharing gently. Our past “bring your ecosystem to Ayra” message was, frankly, too intense and didn’t generate the results we wanted.
We held sessions in September that brought the Ayra Cards story to the foreground.
You can find the recording of our sessions here: Link to the Member Portal
Next month, we will begin holding demo days where members showcase their integrations with Ayra Cards at any component level (issuer, holder, verifier, trust registry, etc.). Reach out if you’re ready!
Internet Identity Workshop (IIW)
Darrell will be at IIW and working to share the Ayra Cards story. We know that we’ll be proposing sessions about:
- Trust Registry Query Protocol (TRQP) – Ayra Cards is making TRQP a reality and we are wiring up the beginnings of the Ayra Trust Network and sharing what we have learned. The Ayra TRQP Profile is a particular point of interest.
- First Person Project – Ayra Cards help the First Person Project get going as many Ayra Cards meet the needs for Personhood Credentials and Verifiable Relationship Credentials – the core of how the First Person Project starts..
If there is something you want to partner on in one of the IIW unconference sessions, connect with Darrell.
Member Resources:
- We have standing office hours available for your use. The calendar link is here for that: link to the Ayra activity and events calendar.
- If you’re a Member and haven’t checked out the Member Portal yet, we recommend that you do so. If you haven’t seen your invite, please reach out to us.
Keep being awesome!
Darrell O’Donnell
Executive Director
darrell.odonnell@ayra.forum
Workstream Updates
Business Workstream
The Ayra Cards White Paper was released mid-September, and guided the agenda of our quarterly meetings last month with Strategic Members, All Members, and the Transitional Board. As we shared in these meetings, Ayra Cards form the kernel of our strategy. There are a few reasons for this.
Ayra Cards is a simple, standards-based way to start trusted, cross-organizational data exchange with the individual as the point of integration. This helps build and use the core technologies that were initially imagined for the Ayra Trust Network as it helps drive: the need for deployed trust registries as Ayra Card issuers must be registered in at least one; requirements and design for a type catalogue in which the credentials and payload types are managed; and the conformance test suite that will be used to test and over time certify Ayra Cards, forming the integration backbone of the Ayra Trust Network. These are discussed in more detail in the section below reflecting on our recent Member meetings.
As Ayra is a neutral nonprofit, this approach sidesteps the lock-in and incentive issues common to platform or competitor-led schemes. We view it as the practical on-ramp that lets ecosystems interoperate without giving up their own governance. Over this quarter, we will be laying the foundation for a cross-organizational pilot and standing up a member-led demo, leading to member contribution paths that feed directly into proof-of-concepts and pilots. Members can request access to the Ayra Cards repository through this link.
Pearson and Trusted.Associates have demonstrated their commitment to advancing these objectives by upgrading to the Strategic tier. We are grateful for their trust, and are excited to continue working with more Members exploring pilots and contributions in new ways.
Agentic AI
Ayra Cards has had a very interesting impact on discussions. As David Treat, CTO of Pearson points out in his recent video, Agentic AI is at the core of their business. We see other members like cheqd, Affinidi, and more showing leadership around the globe.
David Treat on Pearson, Agentic AI and Ayra Cards (Members Portal) – Darrell visited with David and part of the discussion was focused on Pearson’s use of Agentic AI and how Ayra Cards can help (particularly when we look at Ayra Cards as a protocol), how we establish a relationship, share a small amount of standard information, and then their systems take it from there.
If you have a story that Ayra can help share or augment, please reach out to see how we can help!
Member Meetings
The underlying focus across recent Member discussions has been understanding how Ayra Cards can unlock value for them and complement their ongoing efforts. The community-wide update at the All Member meetings spotlighted the summer Global Digital Collaboration event in Geneva, and the complementary launches of the First Person Project white paper and the ~15-page Ayra Cards white paper. Interactions in a digital trust relationship were compared to a “dance”, with agreed-upon processes, protocols, or actions forming the “steps” in that dance to maintain trust and move forward. With that analogy, Ayra Cards were presented as the first steps of the dance: establish a trusted, private connection; exchange a minimal, governed credential; and pass payloads (links/pointers to other verified data and services). This approach is intentionally narrow at the start so different verifiers can plug in their own next steps.
Members discussed gradual, low-risk adoption across many small ecosystems, improving portability (e.g., employment, education, compliance) and driving traffic back to existing platforms via payload links. Reliability (for trust registries), privacy (data in the individual’s wallet, consent tracking), and offline/edge scenarios were all highlighted.
The Strategic Member discussions focused on a standards-based business-card credential that supports the First Person Project, and on standardizing discovery/orchestration (“what can you do?”) as a meta-protocol, reusing existing standards rather than inventing new ones. Adoption was framed as start small, grow steadily: such cards can be self-issued or employer-issued, and are meant to activate and connect registries, not replace them. Illustrative use cases included cross-organization employee badging, posted-worker compliance, and event/office workflows.
The Transitional Board and its committees are focusing on near-term deliverables – reviewing business strategy and finance policies, and refining membership procedures – as we administratively move towards two upcoming general meetings: a procedural one in November and a full Annual General Meeting in May 2026 with board elections and necessary actions to complete the transition to the Swiss association structure.
Notably, two members of the Transitional Board are now exploring a children’s rights/privacy working group to guide impact assessments as credentials evolve. Members interested in contributing to demos, testing, or committee work are encouraged to reach out to them in the Member Portal.
Office Hours
Driving Member interconnections underlies our community building efforts – all Members are invited to present and to submit topics for discussion at the Ayra Office Hours. Members can do so by either filling this form or requesting access to the agenda items and notes document and adding an entry for the relevant date. Please feel free to reach out to nayan.banerjee@ayra.forum with your topics as well.
Last month’s business-focused office hours were held following the transitional board meeting and focused on two threads: membership design and Ayra Cards pilots. Participants distinguished network participants and members with governance rights, and considered a cooperative lens where an individual and their enterprise could be separate members. On Ayra Cards, the group discussed individual-centric pilots and first identifying a minimal schema/payload and simple interaction patterns to stand up a few narrow proofs-of-concept with explicit objectives.
We encourage you to continue viewing Ayra’s monthly business and technical office hours as a member-led space to showcase initiatives, test ideas, and connect with peers, all within the bounds of antitrust and competition law.
Governance Workstream
We held our last Board meeting of the year last Tuesday the 30th. The focus of the Executive Director’s report was Ayra Cards, the Ayra Cards White Paper having been sent as a pre-read. The Chair of the Finance Committee, Anushka Soma-Patel, and a Co-Chair of the Membership Committee, Rita Hazlett, for the first time presented updates from their Committees, another step in the development of Ayra governance.
We are now orienting toward Ayra’s first Annual General Meeting (AGM) next month, which will be held virtually on Thursday, November 20th at 14:00 UTC. It is open to all Ayra members. If you need the Zoom registration link, please contact Nayan.
Technical Workstream
We held the Ayra Cards discussions at our September All Members meeting. Those sessions are available in the Members Portal: Link to the Member Portal
More coming in November with Member-led demonstrations and proofs of concept.
Trust Registry Query Protocol
The Trust Registry Query Protocol is about to enter Public Review 02 (TRQP v2.0 PR02).
TRQP is at the point where implementations have begun in earnest. Ayra is no exception. This month we are working on bringing the full Ayra Trust Registry Resources into line with TRQP v2.0 PR02 – you’ll see this work happening over the next few weeks – please jump in to help if you can!
NOTE: TRP v1.0 was DEPRECATED in 2024. TRQP replaces it and is far more focused on the needs of creating a network of connected trust registries. Ayra will not be supporting the TRP but the shift to TRQP should be minor as they both addressed the same two fundamental questions:
- Does EntityX have AuthorizationY in EcosystemZ?
- Does EcosystemA recognize EcosystemB?
If you need assistance mapping TRP over to TRQP let us know.
Technical Office Hours: You can access the Technical Office Hours link here: link to the Ayra activity and events calendar. We invite members to bring ideas, questions, or proposals for payload types and schema design for Ayra Cards; trust registry and conformance testing approaches; any other technical component you’d like to shape.
Engaging with Ayra
Ayra team members will be present at the Internet Identity Workshop in Mountain View, California (October 21-23). We would love to see you there, and please let us know if we can help you meet with members of the Ayra Community. We will also be in Zurich on October 27 and 28, and Darrell and Maxwell will be holding in-person office hours in London on the evening of October 30 – please let us know if you’d like to book a slot so that we can focus our attention on what we can do together. Members of the Ayra team will also be present at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona on November 4 and 5.
If you have not yet subscribed to the Ayra Activity and Events Calendar, you can do so here: Ayra activity and events calendar. Please note that most activities at this point are Member-only and will require your registration to be approved.
If you’re a Member and haven’t checked out the Member Portal yet, we recommend that you do so. If you haven’t seen your invite, reach out to nayan.banerjee@ayra.forum.
If you are part of an organization that would like to apply for Ayra Membership, we invite you to complete the Ayra Membership Application Form: Link to Application Form. Please reach out to Nayan for any questions on your Membership application.
We have been reaching out to all Members for one-on-one conversations, and if you haven’t spoken to us in the last few weeks, we hope you can take some time out to freely share any feedback and raise questions. We look forward to engaging discussions and thank our Members for their commitment to supporting Ayra on its journey. Please feel free to reach out to us directly at any time.