System and method that uses cryptographic certificates to define groups of entities

Abstract

A system and method for issuing a cryptographic certificate comprises describing prerequisite condition on the cryptographic certificate. The prerequisite conditions comprise membership in prerequisite group of entities. An entity may be a participant, a resource or a privilege, etc. One or more target groups of entities may be named on the cryptographic certificate. One or more prerequisite group stakeholder that authorizes an entity in the prerequisite group of entities to be added as members in another group of entities sign the cryptographic certificate. The cryptographic certificate may also be signed by target group stakeholders that authorizes an entity to be added as a member of the one or more target groups. Exemplary prerequisite conditions relate to one or more of a membership in another group of entities, a physical characteristic, a temporal characteristic, a location characteristic or a position characteristic, among others.