# Getting started The Participant Registry admits members to the data space. The Participant Registry serves as the Trust Anchor for the data space, a crucial aspect in any iSHARE use case. Each participant in the data space can verify in the Participant Registry whether other parties in the data space are trusted and compliant. These are prerequisites, however, which is why it does not play a direct role (and is not depicted) in any of the use cases. To register all participants in the data space and ensure that the coverage by the Framework is digitally verifiable, the Participant Registry is built on a Distributed Ledger across all data spaces, using the iSHARE Trust Framework as the core component. This means all data spaces operating based on the Trust Framework are interoperable by design.\ \ With the Participant Registry, data space governance body/administrators can register participants. For participant administration, a web interface (Participant Registry) or APIs for automated registration are available. Automated participant discovery in data spaces is facilitated through defined endpoints that offer key insights for data spaces to operate: The Participant Registry can issue Participant Credentials as Verifiable Credentials (VCs) to onboarded parties and expose them via the [DCP Endpoints.](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/m2m-verifiable-credential-endpoints) Holders store these in a credential wallet and present them to verifiers when needed for onboarding or service use. Verifiers check issuer (Participant Registry), signature, schema, and status. This complements existing registry lookups and improves portability across data spaces. For the structure of the Participant Credential, see the [JSON Schema](https://schemas.ishare.eu/v3/party/schema.json). *Parties Endpoint*\ Retrieve data from a selection of parties available in the data space or in a subset of the data space. It will look like this (example where the iSHARE DID method is used as identifier): /parties/did:ishare:EU.NL.NTRLNL-10000000. Every node implementation is equipped with API’s and with that can serve within the data space as the single source for party information with the performance level of the data space. The Party model describes a participant. Most information is clustered in [claims](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/claim-models). In order to double check if required endpoints are implemented, please use the following list as a cheat sheet: Participant Registry required endpoints: * [ ] [access-token-m2m](https://dev.ishare.eu/all-roles-common-endpoints/access-token-m2m "mention") * [ ] [capabilities](https://dev.ishare.eu/all-roles-common-endpoints/capabilities "mention") * [ ] [parties](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/parties "mention") * [ ] [parties-options](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/parties-options "mention") * [ ] [single-party](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/single-party "mention") * [ ] [parties-single-party-options](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/parties-single-party-options "mention") * [ ] [claims-get](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/claims-get "mention") * [ ] [claims-options](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/claims-options "mention") * [ ] [claims-single-claim-get](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/claims-single-claim-get "mention") * [ ] [claims-single-claim-options](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/claims-single-claim-options "mention") * [ ] [trusted-list](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/trusted-list "mention") * [ ] [dataspaces](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/dataspaces "mention") * [ ] [frameworks](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/frameworks "mention") Participant Registry optional endpoints: * [ ] [parties-post](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/parties-post "mention") * [ ] [parties-single-party-put](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/parties-single-party-put "mention") * [ ] [claims-post](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/claims-post "mention") * [ ] [claims-single-claim-patch](https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/claims-single-claim-patch "mention") {% hint style="info" %} As these optional endpoints allow creating and updating parties and claims, The Participant Registry is expected to allow this method only for selected clients (for instance an onboarding portal that operates under the responsibility of the Participant Registry). The Participant Registry MAY also use the Authorisation Registry to authorise and determine which parties are allowed to use these endpoints for what specific purpose. {% endhint %} {% hint style="info" %} The endpoints /ep\_creation and /versions have been removed from version 3.0. * The /ep\_creation endpoint has been replaced by POST and PATCH operations on party and claim endpoints. * The versions endpoint has been replaced by the /frameworks endpoint. {% endhint %} --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://dev.ishare.eu/participant-registry-role/getting-started.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.