A method relates to distributing user credentials in a distributed physical access control system, and more generally to distributing user credentials in a distributed system. A method may include storing a user credential database (DB), a first transformed credential DB and a second transformed credential DB for authenticating users to access a first and a second service provided by the device. The method may include generating the first transformed credential DB and the second transformed credential DB based on the user credential DB and comparing a credential received from a user to the first or the second transformed credential DB to determine whether to grant access to the first or the second service. The method may include distributing the user credential DB to a plurality of other devices connected in a network for the other devices to generate transformed credential DBs for authenticating users to access services.