Licensing

Community Specification License 1.0

All OTL specifications — including protocol definitions, data models, interface descriptions, and conformance requirements — are licensed under the Community Specification License (CSL) 1.0.

The CSL 1.0 grants anyone the right to implement, deploy, and build upon OTL specifications in both open-source and proprietary products, subject to the terms of the license. It includes a patent non-assert covenant from contributing participants, providing implementors with protection against patent claims arising from their implementation of the specification.

• OTL protocol specifications and technical standards documents
• Data model definitions, schema descriptions, and wire format specifications
• Conformance criteria and test assertions
• API interface descriptions and normative requirements
• Any document designated as a Specification within the OTL repository

↗ Read the Community Specification License 1.0

Apache License 2.0

All OTL software — including reference implementations, SDKs, tooling, and example code — is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

The Apache 2.0 license permits use, reproduction, modification, and distribution of covered software in source and binary forms, for any purpose, with or without modification, subject to the conditions of the license. It includes an express grant of patent rights from contributors to users.

• Reference implementations of OTL protocols
• Software libraries and SDKs published under the OTL project
• Developer tooling, test suites, and validation utilities
• Sample code, scripts, and example integrations
• Any file designated as software within the OTL repository

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under this license is distributed on an "as is" basis, without warranties or conditions of any kind, either express or implied.

↗ Read the Apache License 2.0

Referenced Standards

OTL specifications are designed to build upon existing standards, including W3C (DID Core, Verifiable Credentials, Data Integrity, JSON-LD); IETF (JWS, JWE, JWK, JWT, SD-JWT, OAuth 2.0); ISO (ISO 20022, ISO 4217, ISO 3166-1, ISO 24165/DTI); FATF/IVMS101; DIF (DIDComm v2); CASA (CAIP-2, CAIP-19); Ethereum Foundation (EIP-1193, EIP-191, ERC-20); OpenID Foundation (OID4VCI); and others identified in the OTL Standards Reference. References to these standards in OTL materials are for interoperability purposes only.

The intellectual property rights in OTL specification materials (as distinct from referenced Third-Party Standards) are held by their respective contributors and made available under the Community Specification License 1.0. They do not apply to, and should not be construed as licensing, any third-party standard referenced in an OTL specification.

Each referenced standard is subject to its own licensing terms, patent policies, and contributor agreements, administered by the respective standards body. Implementors are responsible for independently assessing and complying with the terms applicable to any third-party standard they implement. A complete listing of all referenced standards and their applicable license terms is available in the OTL Standards Reference.

Nothing in this page implies any endorsement, affiliation, or approval by any third-party standards organization of OTL or its materials.

Contributing to OTL

OTL welcomes contributions to its specifications and reference implementations from individuals and organizations. Contributions may include proposed changes to protocol specifications, additions to reference implementations, bug fixes, documentation improvements, and participation in working group processes.

To protect the integrity of OTL materials and ensure that all participants can rely on the open licenses described above, contributors will be asked to agree to terms governing their contributions prior to their acceptance. Anyone wishing to contribute or participate in the development of OTL specifications or code should contact the OTL working group.