FAQ Matter

Matter is an initiative of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), developed through collaboration among leaders in the IoT industry. It is a protocol designed to connect compatible devices and systems with each other. The ambition is that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and seamless to use.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), formerly known as the Zigbee Alliance, is a group of companies that maintain and publish the Matter standard, along with several others, including Zigbee.

The security and certification concept of Matter is based on PKI (Public Key Infrastructure). Every Matter device vendor needs to have a Matter-compliant PKI.

A Product Attestation Authority (PAA) provides attestation services to Matter devices, ensuring that each certificate is legitimate and meets the requirements of the Matter specification.

The Matter Distributed Compliance Ledger (DCL) is the CSA-operated trusted root store of PAAs. It is a cryptographically secure, distributed storage network based on blockchain technology that enables CSA and authorized vendors to publish information about their Matter devices.

The CSA Matter DCL contains certified Matter PAAs. To submit and operate such trusted root, the operator must fulfill certain criteria and will be audited to ensure the trust is maintained. Certified Matter roots are listed here: https://webui.dcl.csa-iot.org/. Non-VID-Scoped PAAs are listed here: https://csa-iot.org/certification/paa/

A Non-VID (Vendor ID) Scoped PAA offers the services of its well-established Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) provider to other members. Each Non-VID Scoped PAA has undergone an exhaustive audit against the Alliance PKI Certificate Policy’s requirements. An established PKI provider guarantees compliance with the Alliance PKI Certificate Policy and eliminates the need to implement, submit, and maintain a Certification Authority.

A VID Scoped PAA is a certified PAA that is dedicated to a specific vendor. 

Matter Casting is an open standard for casting media from mobile apps to a compatible display, where the Matter smart home protocol is used to manage the connection between them. The casting device app must present a DAC as part of the commissioning process with the display. The app receives the DAC from online PKI service just-in-time for the commissioning.