credentialSubject metadata description ambiguities

Issue #1984 resolved
Michael Jones created an issue

At https://openid.bitbucket.io/connect/openid-4-verifiable-credential-issuance-1_0.html#name-credential-issuer-metadata-2 (Credential Issuer Metadata), there are several ambiguities in the description of credentialSubject. The description opens with:

credentialSubject: OPTIONAL. A JSON object containing a list of key value pairs, where the key identifies the claim name values offered in the Credential. The value MAY be a dictionary, which allows to represent the full (potentially deeply nested) structure of the verifiable credential to be issued. The value is a JSON object detailing the specifics about the support for the claim with a following non-exhaustive list of parameters that MAY be included:

  1. It says “The value MAY be a dictionary.” Are there cases in which the value is not a dictionary? If so, the other kinds of values need to be described. If not, it should be changed to say “The value is a dictionary” - or better yet, “The value is a JSON object”.
  2. Do the two uses of “The value” in the paragraph refer to the same value or is the first referring to the entire credentialSubject object value and the second referring to the value of each member of the credentialSubject JSON object? I suspect it’s the latter, but the English description is ambiguous.

Note that when this language is fixed, the same fixes should also be applied to the two other locations in which similar language is used. Search for “dictionary” and you will find the others.

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