Allows various kinds of credentials (secrets) to be used in idiosyncratic ways. Each binding will define an environment variable active within the scope of the step. You can then use them directly from any other steps that expect environment variables to be set:

sh 'curl -u $USERNAME:$PASSWORD http://…'

or retrieve values from Groovy code via the env magic variable:

def password = env.PASSWORD

Note that some steps explicitly ask for credentials of a particular kind, usually as a credentialsId parameter, in which case this step is unnecessary.