Our Own Decentralized, Heterogeneous Identity Network

• What does that mean?
• Why might we want it?
• How would we do it?

Demo

• No content
• No people
• (You don't ever have to use Nerdster, but atm it's the only thing that can show and leverage our decentralized identity network.)

• No key, Create, ..
• Congrats! Got crypto (cryptographic public/private key pair)

• Click "QR Sign in"
• Click QR Scan icon on phone, show it Nerdster "Sign-in Parameters"
• Identity key sent / received
• No content
• "Me" exists now
• (Warning: You're invisible)

• Click QR Scan icon on phone, show it Tom's phone
• Name "Tom"
• (dismiss but mention)

• Witness Tom
• Witness content in content pane

• Filter movies, Sort by recommended
• Check Andrew's and Tom's ratings
• Click Andrew
• Park on Andrew's smiley to see vouch chain

• Sign in with delegate (dismiss notifications but mention)
• Like (dismiss notifications but mention)

What happened?

• ONE-OF-US.NET phone app: Builds identity network
• Nerdster web app: Leverages identity network

• to convince you that it's legit
• because it's way different from username/password sign-in at a service
• (The 2 apps are not connected, have no special access.)

Why even crypto?

Public Key Cryptography allows someone with a public/private key pair to sign content (create a digital signature) that anyone who knows the public key can verify.
No authority involved.

1. Signing works. Keys are cryptic.
   Nothing fancy or devious
2. Signing any content, even keys.
   We could all be signing stuff, but we wouldn't know whose keys are whose.
3. Identity.. Tada!
   Marge scanned her kids' phones and distributed their keys.
   Lisa can tell that this was done by Bart and references Millhouse.

Distributing keys is the crux

• author a statement vouching for another person's identity and humanity
• reference their identity, a crypto public key
• cryptographically sign that statement (requires your private crypto identity key, can be verified by anyone who knows your public key)
• publish it to a location where everything signed by that key can be found.

• distribute their identity key
• in a way that is verifiable as having been done by you

• 100's of services we enjoy (Nerdster not among them)
  • social (Facebook / Insta, 4 Twitters, ...)
  • shopping (eBay, Craigslist, Amazon, Marketface, ...)
  • reviews (Yelp, Maps, etc..)
  • video (YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, ...)
  • dating (Tinder, Grindr, Bumble, ...)
  • services (Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, VRBO, ...)
  • texting (Messenger, SnapChat, WhatsApp, Signal, ...)
  • news (NYT, WSJ, etc.)
• Wouldn't work out well to give our private key to every one of those
• But we do want to have people on them
  (Anonymity can be offered by trusted services)

• create a new, disposable public/private key pair
• sign that this key represents you on that service
• securely transmit that key pair to the service
• (Your identity private key stays on your phone)

• signs a statement using its delegate key
• publishes it where everything signed by that key can be found

• Statements: raw or interpreted, for every activity
• Keys: QR and text, token, too (double click)
• Open link to published statements
• public, signed, portable.
• This is the place (and only place) where both apps get their data

Whitelisted, Authentic

• Signed content can be replicated all over the place
• Trusted because crypto, not origin or authority

Ready!

• Sign-in with or without delegate keys is available for any service.

Heterogeneous

• Read page
• Show Heterogeneous boxes

The Paradigm

• Your identity online is your crypto key. (Heterogeneous, simple, open, portable)
• It's on us to state whose key is whose. (Decentralized)
• Sign if you care to, and we'll know it was you. (Authentic)

• Competing algorithms over our signed content
• Can't do that with our siloed content.

Nerdster Sample Features

• Demo phone not in network
• names change, decentralized
• content changes
• Any other service could do or otherwise leverage all of this using the published ONE-OF-US.NET and Nerdster signed statements

• Block Tom for <nerdster> context - no content other than demo phone's like
• Follow Andrew, now we see Andrew and his son's content
• leverages the identity layer
• like all the other actions, this can be verified and leveraged by your network on other services you use. Portable

• Submit
• Relate (equate, not related, ...)
• Tag
• Censor
• Toggle censorship
• Network degrees and paths..

• Simpsons Bot Farm
• Conflicts, fraud, censorship, and worse...

What we didn't do

• Pick a username
• Pick a password or sign in traditionally
• But we did name Tom
• (Tom didn't name the Demo phone)

Demo Close Account

• The demo phone sort of gave the Nerdster an account, not the other way around.

• Turn on Show Crypto
• Locate demo phone's delegate key

The phone app holds your identity key, manages these things...

• Share: Email QR, ...
• Settings: Import/export keys (they're yours), ...
• Sign:
• Trusts / Blocks: Your network
• Replace: Your former identity keys (you'll lose them, have them compromised, ...)
• Delegate: Your authorized services (Nerdster, ...)

• Could revoke (since always, or at any time in the past)
• Just clear (remove / erase)

• Refresh, delegate key gone
• Likes and everything else is gone, too (block Tom, follow Andrew)

• If anything, I have an account with the folks who've vouched for me.
• (demo will not get an account with me)

Identity

• I am not my Facebook account, my email address, shopping history, prescription medications, ...
• That's how the Internet knows me but not how people do.

• We're just publishing it authentically so we can use it online.

• More open to learning? growth?
  The folks forming your news feed would be there because you invited them, not because an algorithm figured out which accounts or content trigger you.
• PoVs.. Even if you don't want to openly news follow me and have it affect those who news follow you, you could still visit, maybe understand, comment, connect..
• Pseudonymous haters in digital backwaters... Would they grow less relevant were authenticity to stage a comeback? Would they be kinder? gentler? How about the rest of us? less confused? less angry?
  Will we recognize them as cowards?

Decentralized Organization

• Not a hierarchy, silo, gov't, or editorial board...
• Robust and resistant to corruption, censorship, and control

Recap

• "Our Own Decentralized, Heterogeneous Identity Network". If you came into this not clear on what we mean by that, I hope you do now.
• Not my network, not the ONE-OF-US.NET network, not the Nerdster network... our decentralized network.
• Both apps can be considered demos, but this could be how this starts.
• Services can consume and produce authentic content that can play nice with other authentic content from other services.
• Open for competition and evolution. Anyone can build better services leveraging our authentic identities and content. (All your likes are belong to us;)
• How will they know who's who? We'll tell them. We build network and let them use it.

Thanks!

• Get your key
• Scan phones
• See you on our own decentralized, heterogeneous network