How Verifiable Credentials Are Rewriting the Rules of Hiring Trust

What if the documents used to verify candidates were never designed to be trustworthy in the first place? In this episode of Don’t Get Played, Sarah O’Melia sits down with Zach Daigle, Chief Strategy and Customer Officer at Cisive, and Etan Bernstein, Head of Ecosystem at the Velocity Network Foundation, to explore how verifiable credentials are reshaping hiring trust. Zach and Etan explain why modern hiring still relies on self-reported resumes and PDFs, forcing employers and background screeners to spend days verifying information that candidates already claim is accurate. As Etan explains, “Every fact needs to be checked because there's no way to trust the source.” They unpack how cryptographically secure credentials allow degrees, licenses, and work history to prove themselves instantly, reducing verification timelines from days to hours and giving individuals ownership of their career data through portable digital wallets.