Terms of Service

Effective date: 24 July 2026 Version: 2026-07-24

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern access to and use of the Cyfher verifiable-credentials platform (the "Service"), operated by Cyfher (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2026/481869/07), a company incorporated in South Africa, of 5 Yeats Avenue, Bedford Park, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2008, South Africa ("Cyfher", "we", "us", "our"). For questions about these Terms, contact privacy@cyfher.io.

1. Acceptance and eligibility

By registering a tenant account, accessing the tenant portal, or otherwise using the Service, you confirm that you have the authority to bind the organisation on whose behalf you are acting ("Tenant", "you"), and that you and that organisation accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy. You must be a legally recognised organisation (or acting for one) capable of entering into binding agreements to register an account. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

2. Description of the Service

Cyfher is a verifiable-credentials platform that lets a Tenant issue, present, verify, and manage digital credentials to and from credential holders, using open standards (including OpenID for Verifiable Credential Issuance/Presentation, SD-JWT VC, mdoc, and W3C Verifiable Credentials). The Service includes an issuer/verifier/admin web application, a tenant portal, and a holder wallet application, together with supporting APIs.

3. Account registration and tenant vetting

Registering for the Service requires submitting accurate organisation and registrant information. Applications are subject to a vetting and approval process before an account becomes active; we may request additional information, decline an application, or impose conditions at our reasonable discretion, including to satisfy our own compliance obligations. You must keep your account information accurate and up to date, and you are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account credentials.

4. Acceptable use

You must not use the Service to:

• issue, present, or verify a credential you know, or reasonably ought to know, to be false, fraudulent, or unlawful;
• issue credentials on behalf of, or purporting to represent, an entity you are not authorised to represent;
• abuse the credential-claim or notification email surfaces, including sending unsolicited claim offers, harvesting holder email addresses, or attempting to circumvent claim-code rate limits or expiry;
• attempt to probe, scan, or compromise the security of the Service or another Tenant's data; or
• otherwise use the Service in a manner that violates applicable law.

We may suspend or terminate access for a violation of this section, as described in section 8.

5. Tenant responsibilities as issuer and controller

As between you and Cyfher, you are solely responsible for the accuracy, lawfulness, and content of every credential you issue through the Service, and for your relationship with your own credential recipients. In that relationship, you are the data controller of your recipients' personal information, and Cyfher processes it only as your processor, on your instructions, as described in our Privacy Policy. Where required by applicable data protection law, a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) governs that processing; contact us at privacy@cyfher.io to put one in place. You are responsible for having a lawful basis for collecting and providing to us any personal information of your credential recipients, and for your own compliance obligations towards them (including, where applicable, POPIA and GDPR).

6. Fees and billing

Use of the Service is billed on a metered basis under the rate card or quote agreed with your account, invoiced on the terms stated at approval or in that quote. Current published rates are available on our pricing page; this section incorporates those rates and any bespoke quote by reference rather than restating them here, so that pricing is maintained in one place. Fees are due on the payment terms stated on each invoice. Late or non-payment may result in suspension under section 8.

7. Intellectual property

Cyfher and its licensors retain all right, title, and interest in and to the Service, including its software, design, and documentation, excluding any content you or your credential recipients submit or that is generated through your use of the Service (such as credential content and templates you configure), which remains yours. You grant us a limited licence to host, process, and transmit that content solely to provide the Service to you.

8. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, in whole or in part, if you materially breach these Terms (including the acceptable-use provisions in section 4), if required by law, or for non-payment of fees, in each case generally after notice and a reasonable opportunity to cure where practicable, except where the breach poses an immediate risk to the Service or other users. You may terminate your account at any time by contacting us. On termination, the provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive (including sections 5, 7, 9, and 10) continue to apply.

9. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, neither party will be liable to the other for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law.

10. Governing law

These Terms are governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of South Africa in respect of any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms.

11. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Each version is dated and carries a version identifier (shown at the top of this page). Where a change is material, we will provide reasonable notice, and continued use of the Service after a new version takes effect constitutes acceptance of that version. Where we require it, we may prompt you to re-accept updated Terms.

12. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to privacy@cyfher.io.