---
id: "kerione-gleif-vlei-architecture"
type: "talk"
type_label: "Talks and presentations"
title: "GLEIF vLEI Architecture"
maintainer: "Samuel M. Smith"
authors:
  - "Samuel M. Smith"
date: "2021-01-05"
year: 2021
reading_level: "practitioner"
reading_level_label: "Practitioner"
reading_level_meaning: "architects, product people and adopters who know identity systems"
evidence: "presenter-reported"
evidence_meaning: "a talk or meeting; what was said, not checked"
status: "superseded"
status_meaning: "replaced by a named successor; kept for history"
access: "public"
access_meaning: "anyone with the link"
topics:
  - "deployments"
  - "infrastructure"
  - "governance"
  - "history"
roles:
  - "security-architect"
  - "infrastructure-operator"
  - "product"
  - "standards-policy"
  - "communications"
  - "investor"
  - "business-development"
  - "researcher"
source_url: "https://github.com/SmithSamuelM/Papers/blob/master/presentations/GLEIF_with_KERI.web.pdf"
source_license: null
source_license_note: null
found_on: "keri-one-resources"
kerisse_credit: false
abstract_license: "CC BY 4.0"
abstract_license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
abstract_attribution: "KSKB, the KERISuite Knowledge Base (https://kskb.dev/)"
last_checked: "2026-10-14"
kskb_url: "https://kskb.dev/cards/kerione-gleif-vlei-architecture/"
kskb_app_url: "https://kskb.dev/#item/kerione-gleif-vlei-architecture"
kskb_record_url: "https://kskb.dev/data/kskb/resources/kerione-gleif-vlei-architecture"
kskb_markdown_url: "https://kskb.dev/export/cards/kerione-gleif-vlei-architecture.md"
---

# GLEIF vLEI Architecture

A slide deck by Samuel M. Smith, linked on keri.one as "GLEIF vLEI KERI Implementation", giving an early overview of the cryptographic infrastructure the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) chose for the verifiable Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI). It explains why KERI-based identifiers were chosen over shared-ledger registries, how key event logs control credential registries, and how delegation from one GLEIF root identifier structures the ecosystem.

Labels: reading level Practitioner; evidence presenter-reported (a talk or meeting; what was said, not checked).
Source: https://github.com/SmithSamuelM/Papers/blob/master/presentations/GLEIF_with_KERI.web.pdf (license not recorded).
The abstract is KSKB's own text under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/; credit KSKB, the KERISuite Knowledge Base (https://kskb.dev/).