diff --git a/packages/vc-handler-ld-local/src/ld-default-contexts.ts b/packages/vc-handler-ld-local/src/ld-default-contexts.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c493aa9d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/vc-handler-ld-local/src/ld-default-contexts.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+import * as fs from 'fs'
+import * as path from 'path'
+import { ContextDoc } from './types/types'
+
+async function _read(_path: string): Promise<ContextDoc> {
+  const contextDefinition = await fs.promises.readFile(path.join(__dirname, '../contexts', _path), {
+    encoding: 'utf8',
+  })
+  return JSON.parse(contextDefinition)
+}
+
+/**
+ * Provides a hardcoded map of common context definitions
+ */
+export const LdDefaultContexts = new Map([
+  ['https://www.w3.org/2018/credentials/v1', _read('w3_2018_credentials_v1.jsonld')],
+  ['https://www.w3.org/ns/did/v1', _read('security_context_v1.jsonld')],
+  ['https://w3id.org/did/v0.11', _read('did_v0.11.jsonld')],
+
+  ['https://veramo.io/contexts/socialmedia/v1', _read('socialmedia-v1.jsonld')],
+  ['https://veramo.io/contexts/kyc/v1', _read('kyc-v1.jsonld')],
+  ['https://veramo.io/contexts/profile/v1', _read('profile-v1.jsonld')],
+  ['https://ns.did.ai/transmute/v1', _read('transmute_v1.jsonld')],
+  [
+    'https://identity.foundation/EcdsaSecp256k1RecoverySignature2020/lds-ecdsa-secp256k1-recovery2020-0.0.jsonld',
+    _read('lds-ecdsa-secp256k1-recovery2020-0.0.jsonld'),
+  ],
+  ['https://w3id.org/security/suites/ed25519-2018/v1', _read('ed25519-signature-2018-v1.jsonld')],
+  ['https://w3id.org/security/suites/x25519-2019/v1', _read('X25519KeyAgreementKey2019.jsonld')],
+  ['https://w3id.org/security/suites/ed25519-2020/v1', _read('ed25519-signature-2020-v1.jsonld')],
+])