DID URL Dereferencing

A DID URL extends a DID with optional components — like paths, query parameters, and fragments — to reference specific resources within or related to a DID document. In other words, a DID can serve as a root authority of a set of DID URLs tied to resources associated with the DID.

This enables many different purposes. Some are standardized — like identifying a specific public key inside the DID document, or identifying a previous version of the DID document — while some depend on the DID method or application. When dereferencing, the input is a DID URL plus dereferencing options, and the output is the DID document, or part of a DID document, or other resource.

For example, a service can be selected from a DID Document using a service DID parameter:

did:example:1234?service=myServiceId

which would make the dereferencing software select the service from the DID document whose serviceId matches the service parameter in the DID URL, and return the service endpoint associated with it.

This process comprises two stages:

1. resolving the DID: getting the DID document;
2. dereferencing: accessing or retrieving the resource identified by the DID URL (a part of the DID document, or a completely separate resource);

DID Parameters and DID Fragement

See specific pages for DID URL Dereferencing of DID Parameters and the DID Fragment:

• DID Parameters: service and relativeRef
• DID Parameter: transformKeys
• DID Parameter: versionId
• DID Parameter: versionTime
• DID Fragment