VC with a validFrom date that is in the future shows misleading error

[jchartrand]

Validating the credential (whose json is at the end of this message) which has a "validFrom": "2099-01-01T00:00:00Z" results in this error, which is entirely misleading:

It really should say something like 'This credential will only be valid after such and such a date'.

The credential:

{
"type": [
"VerifiableCredential",
"OpenBadgeCredential"
],
"name": "A marvel",
"issuer": {
"type": [
"Profile"
],
"name": "Bestest Ever University",
"url": "https://bestest.edu",
"phone": "1-222-333-4444",
"description": "The bestest.",
"image": {
"id": "https://github.com/digitalcredentials/test-files/assets/206059/01eca9f5-a508-40ac-9dd5-c12d11308894",
"type": "Image",
"caption": "MIT oh"
},
"email": "horse@better.edu",
"address": {
"type": [
"Address"
],
"addressCountry": "Canada",
"addressCountryCode": "CA",
"addressRegion": "ON",
"addressLocality": "Ancaster",
"streetAddress": "163 Corndog",
"postOfficeBoxNumber": "2",
"postalCode": "L9G4H7",
"geo": {
"type": "GeoCoordinates",
"latitude": 1,
"longitude": 1
}
},
"otherIdentifier": [
{
"type": "IdentifierEntry",
"identifier": "9335",
"identifierType": "sourcedId"
},
{
"type": "IdentifierEntry",
"identifier": "984",
"identifierType": "nationalIdentityNumber"
}
],
"official": "Charlie Horse",
"parentOrg": {
"id": "did:example:89898349834",
"type": [
"Profile"
],
"name": "Animal Universities"
},
"id": "did:key:z6MkjoriXdbyWD25YXTed114F8hdJrLXQ567xxPHAUKxpKkS"
},
"@context": [
"https://www.w3.org/ns/credentials/v2",
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/ob/v3p0/context-3.0.3.json"
],
"validFrom": "2099-01-01T00:00:00Z",
"validUntil": "9999-01-02T00:00:00Z",
"credentialSubject": {
"type": [
"AchievementSubject"
],
"name": "Sam Salmon",
"achievement": {
"id": "https://example.com/achievements/21st-century-skills/teamwork",
"type": [
"Achievement"
],
"name": "A credential that isn't yet valid",
"criteria": {
"narrative": "Team members are nominated for this badge by their peers and recognized upon review by Example Corp management."
},
"description": "This badge recognizes the development of the capacity to collaborate within a group environment."
}
},
"id": "urn:uuid:677fe8a6cacf98774d482d06",
"proof": {
"type": "DataIntegrityProof",
"created": "2025-07-18T14:46:59Z",
"verificationMethod": "did:key:z6MkjoriXdbyWD25YXTed114F8hdJrLXQ567xxPHAUKxpKkS#z6MkjoriXdbyWD25YXTed114F8hdJrLXQ567xxPHAUKxpKkS",
"cryptosuite": "eddsa-rdfc-2022",
"proofPurpose": "assertionMethod",
"proofValue": "z3ATKLuXyMbWyCEQGDZev5jcDmqE8LygGwovNnzK1nSGXcq9yuys2ap8nNLZT8UB6zX5xjtYRQUtAKoApwoc5NfHk"
}
}

[alexfigtree]

Should say "Credential isn't yet valid". Also, may need equivalent ticket in LCW.

[meghac538]

Created PR #262

@swaroopinamdar could you please help me update the status of this issue to Ready for PR Review

[jchartrand]

@meghac538 Thank you - looks great. Could you remove the now redundant 'This credential' when that error message is shown, as in this screenshot:

[jchartrand]

@meghac538 Looking at this more closely now I see that you check for the not-yet-valid date before running verification, and if the date isn't yet valid then you don't verify.

The verification should MUST be run before checking for the not yet valid part.

This is because the other checks returned by verification are more important, including the check for a bad signature, the revocation check, and the registry check.

If any of those three checks are false - especially the signature and revocation checks - then the not-yet-valid part doesn't matter at all because the credential itself should be considered completely invalid. Just saying it isn't yet valid is misleading and could suggest to someone that apart from the fact that it isn't yet valid everything else is okay.

And in fact I see you've done exactly that by constructing a new result (createNotYetValidResult) that sets everything else to verified.

What should happen here is that the notYetValid part of this should be returned by verifier-core. I am in a way a little surprised that it doesn't already return something about the dates not yet being valid. What does it return?

You should also add at least one new test to the Playwright test suites to test for this functionality.