Post #3241144

2023-03-19 14:47 UTC

@mike@flipboard.social we already have a really good federated identity system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System why shouldn't we build on that, every user with their own identity provided by DNS. i asked the folks at Tucows to do this a few years ago. i wanted to use DNS for documents. they would have started a business selling sub-domains. and there's no reason every new experiment requires an identity system. and it should also come with storage, that the user pays for.

Replies (9)

@PeterBronez@hachyderm.io 2023-03-19 14:54

@davew@mastodon.social @mike@flipboard.social yes please! I want a domain name strongly linked to my official identity, with document verification, great security, and Real Human customer service.

Open ##3241153
@justinmwhitaker@mastodon.social 2023-03-19 15:45

@davew@mastodon.social @mike@flipboard.social that’s a really smart idea. It always bothers me that attention goes to the “new hotness” (Blockchain! Crypto!) when older technology has yet to be fully explored or exploited. Personal DNS would cover a lot of the use cases blockchain or other identity efforts are hoping to cover.

Open ##3241154
@lucasgonze@indieweb.social 2023-03-19 15:50

@davew@mastodon.social @mike@flipboard.social One way to do a DNS for personal identity is with something like purl.org for subdomains branching off a single domain (or relatively small set of) domains that are managed in the public interest. Then a domain for personal identity would be something like davewiner.purl.org. Thoughts, @brewsterkahle@mastodon.archive.org?

Open ##3241159
@rigo@mamot.fr 2023-03-19 16:36

@davew@mastodon.social @mike@flipboard.social just learned that the DNS is not secure and resilient enough for the management of identifiers at scale beyond low value things like RSS posts. This is why systems like Gaia-X will use DIDs, hopefully without PoW methods.

Open ##3241161
@michaelgraaf@campaign.openworlds.info 2023-03-19 17:22

@davew@mastodon.social @mike@flipboard.social In #SouthAfrica we have a legacy domain for personal identifiers, ".nom.za" which provides one per citizen (i.e. per national ID number) for a modest one-off fee. But the process is arcane and little-known.

Open ##3241183
@mcrocker@indieweb.social 2023-03-19 17:53

@davew@mastodon.social @mike@flipboard.social @frankel has a post about having a centralized identity https://mastodon.top/@frankel/109536112569494668 that I think implements something like what you're talking about. It does require hosting a site, or some page you have control over, but only needs a single static page. It would also, probably, be good to include a human readable index page with your rel="me" link (see https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-verify-my-account/ ) to bolster you identity claim going the other way.

Open ##3241184
@mgaruccio@hachyderm.io 2023-03-20 03:23

@davew@mastodon.social @mike@flipboard.social If I’m following, this would look similar to mtls except instead of the server having a trust store it would follow someone’s profile links to verify they signed their like with a cert associated to that account? If so it would still require a browser plugin but would open up a ton of possibilities. In theory mtls could also solve the storage ask here on top of regular old S3.

Open ##3241187
@kalfeher@mastodon.social 2023-03-20 05:31

@davew@mastodon.social @mike@flipboard.social DNS is not an id system for individuals. trust anchors in DNS work insofar as proving control in a distributed way. acme dns-01 a good example. But you’re not proving ID, just control. So trust starts with implied but unprovable Id despite the efforts of IP lawyers & ICANN hangers on, Whois data is neither widely accessible nor particularly accurate. I personally use rfc7929 entries, but gpg lifecycle management is beyond ordinary user capabilities

Open ##3241188
@davew@mastodon.social 2023-03-20 14:43

@mike@flipboard.social a general comment about the replies to this post. i think you all assume that anything built on DNS must have all the behaviors of DNS. that's a big assumption and in terms of what i'm thinking of, incorrect. i don't debate on social media, so that's all i want to say at this time. 😀

Open ##3241191