@J12t it may not be the right solution for the fediverse,...

@J12t it may not be the right solution for the fediverse, but I think the natural way to have a portable identity is to have the definitive identifier be the public key. Then any account at a particular host amounts to an alias to that key, and signing on consists of proving that you have the corresponding private key. It would lose the convenience of having an ID that you can directly use for communication, but until communication isn’t host-specific that’s built in to portability

Like 14 Apr 2023 at 21:02 | Wall-to-wall | Open on mastodon.social

2 comments

Johannes Ernst

@ShadSterling Yes, it would be nice to use a public key as the "real" identifier used by the machinery, and to use the fediverse handle(s) as essentially pet names for that key, so the user never has to "see" that key in normal usage.

The usual problem with private key management applies, of course.

14 Apr 2023 at 21:06 | Open on social.coop

Kevin Davidson

@J12t @ShadSterling I think that’s what Nostr does. Except people have no experience with or easy way to store their private key locally and securely. If your private key gets compromised there’s no support for rolling over to an alternate key or revoking keys. You’ve lost that account. The only fix is create a new one and try to tell people your new identity.

14 Apr 2023 at 21:52 | Open on mas.to