A letterhead, a PDF, and a fake phone number. That’s all it takes to fabricate a reference. Up to 30% of applicants embellish or invent theirs entirely.
Every new employer calls the old employer, waits days, and gets a guarded two-sentence confirmation. It doesn’t scale and it doesn’t work.
The Work References Standard solves both. Issue once, verify anywhere, forever.
This is a real reference for James Holloway, issued by workreferences.org. Click the button to verify it instantly.
James was a reliable and hardworking member of our airside baggage team for over three years. He consistently met tight turnaround targets, handled fragile and oversized items with care, and maintained an excellent attendance record throughout his time with us. He completed his airside safety and security clearance renewals on time every year and was trusted to train new starters during peak season. His supervisors regularly praised his calm under pressure and willingness to cover extra shifts at short notice. I would happily rehire James and recommend him for any ground handling or airside operations role.
Three cryptographic primitives. No middleman. No vendor lock-in.
Each reference is digitally signed by the issuing organisation. Any modification breaks the signature instantly.
Public keys are published as DNS TXT records. Verification is tied to the organisation’s domain — no central authority required.
References travel with the candidate as a PDF, link, or QR code. Use them from job to job, forever.
No vendor lock-in. Any organisation can implement the standard. Any system can verify references independently.
The standard is designed to be adopted by any organisation or software system.
Issue signed references when employees leave. Stop fielding verification calls.
Integrate reference issuance into your existing workflows via the open API.
Add one-click reference verification to your hiring pipeline.
Verify candidate references instantly. No accounts, no phone calls.
Add cryptographic reference verification alongside existing checks.
Carry verified references from job to job. Share a link and they verify instantly.
Ed25519 signatures, AES-256-GCM encryption, DNS domain anchoring. The same technology trusted by Signal and enterprise infrastructure worldwide.
Tamper-proof signatures
Any modification breaks the cryptographic seal
Domain-anchored identity
Independently verifiable via public DNS records
No central authority
Decentralised verification — no single point of failure
Free to verify
No accounts, no fees, no sign-up required
It is an open standard for verifiable employment references. Employers publish a cryptographic public key in their DNS records. When they issue a reference, it is digitally signed with the corresponding private key. Anyone can verify the signature against the DNS record, confirming the reference is genuine and unaltered.
The Work References Foundation, a UK Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The standard is governed through public proposals, comment periods, and trustee approval. It is free and open for anyone to implement.
No. The standard, documentation, and verification tools are completely free. The Foundation exists to keep them that way. Commercial implementations like RefPassport may offer paid services built on top of the standard.
Yes. The standard is open and freely available. Any HR system, ATS, payroll provider, or employer can implement it. See our documentation and API reference for technical details.
A verifier receives a signed reference (as a link, QR code, or PDF). They check the cryptographic signature against the issuer's public key published in their DNS TXT records. If the signature matches, the reference is authentic. No accounts, no phone calls, no waiting.
Read the specification, try the demo, or start implementing today.