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This comprehensive explanation has been generated from 15 GitHub source documents. All source documents are searchable here.
Last updated: October 7, 2025
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An [ACDC](/concept/acdc) that does not contain an Issuee field in either its attribute section or attribute aggregate section, meaning the credential is not explicitly issued to a specific entity and functions as a bearer credential or public assertion.
An untargeted ACDC is an Authentic Chained Data Container that lacks an Issuee field in both its attribute section and attribute aggregate sections. This structural characteristic distinguishes it from a targeted ACDC, which explicitly binds the credential's claims to a specific entity through the presence of an Issuee identifier.
The absence of the Issuee field means the credential makes assertions or claims without designating a specific subject to whom those claims apply. This creates a bearer-style credential or a general public assertion that is not bound to any particular identity.
Within the ACDC specification, the presence or absence of an Issuee field represents a fundamental design choice that affects:
Privacy and Disclosure Models: Untargeted ACDCs support use cases where claims need to be made publicly or where the subject of the claims should not be predetermined. This contrasts with targeted ACDCs, which implement directed credentials with explicit subject binding.
Presentation Semantics: In IPEX (Issuance and Presentation Exchange) protocol flows, untargeted ACDCs function differently during presentation exchanges. Since there is no designated Issuee, the credential can be presented by any party without implying that the presenter is the subject of the claims.
Credential Chaining: When used in DAG structures formed by chained ACDCs, untargeted credentials can serve as public reference points or contextual information that multiple downstream credentials can reference without creating subject-binding relationships.
When implementing untargeted ACDCs, developers should note:
Field Validation: Parsers and validators must correctly handle the absence of Issuee fields in both the a (attribute) and A (attribute aggregate) sections. This is a valid ACDC structure, not an error condition.
Presentation Logic: In IPEX implementations, untargeted ACDCs require different presentation semantics than targeted credentials. The Discloser of an untargeted ACDC is not claiming to be the subject of the credential's assertions.
Chaining Considerations: When using Edge Operators like I2I (Issuer-to-Issuee) in credential chains, untargeted ACDCs cannot serve as parent credentials in I2I relationships since they lack an Issuee to match against the child credential's Issuer.
Privacy Model: Untargeted ACDCs do not benefit from the privacy-preserving properties of targeted credentials with selective disclosure of Issuee-specific attributes. They are inherently more public in nature.
Use Case Selection: Choose untargeted ACDCs when the credential represents general assertions, public data, or bearer-style authorizations rather than subject-specific claims.
Use Cases: Untargeted ACDCs are particularly useful for:
Structural Requirements: According to the ACDC specification, every ACDC MUST have an Issuer (identified by the i field at the top level) but MAY have an Issuee. Untargeted ACDCs exercise this optionality by omitting the Issuee, while still maintaining full cryptographic verifiability of the Issuer's authorship through KERI-based signatures.
Comparison with Targeted ACDCs: The key distinction is that targeted ACDCs create a cryptographic binding between claims and a specific subject identifier, enabling privacy-preserving selective disclosure and subject-specific authorization flows. Untargeted ACDCs sacrifice this subject-binding in favor of generality and bearer-style semantics.
i field (required for all ACDCs)