# Overview

Beacon is an awasome protocol to allow wallets and dApps to exchange data and sign transactions. All you need about Beacon is available there : [https://docs.walletbeacon.io/](https://docs.walletbeacon.io/)

Integration with Beacon is extremely simple and you can test it in minutes. To initiate the protocol, it suffices to send a payload of RAW type to the signature of the wallet.

This payload will contain a message to your liking and an URL that you will obtain on the Altme Sandbox platform : [https://talao.co](https://talao.co/)

The URL is given just after the fragment “#” with no space. Example with a RAW message :

```
'Get your Welcome card ! #https://talao.co/sandbox/op/beacon/ormmcdomjv?id=1234'
```

User will be asked to sign the payload as usual but just after Altme wallet will start a process to request a credential to an issuer or present a credential to a verifier.

User will be asked to sign the payload then to accept or reject the credential offered by an Issuer (or to select the credentials requested by a Verifier).

Those verifiable credentials ([https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/](https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/)) are json signed file stored in the smartphone.

A verifiable credential of a natural person (user) is stored off-chain as it is personal data. The subject of the credential is the Decentralized IDentity (DID) attached to the wallet. This identity is protected by a private key stored in the wallet aside the crypto privates keys.

Basically Beacon is used to initiate a Self Sovereign Identity standard protocol to request or present verifiable credentials/ verifiable presentations to issuers or verifiers. Other protocols like OpenId 4 SSI or WACI exist.
