In light of the recent Twitter spat between Elon Musk and The NY Times[2][3], I thought it would be useful to demonstrate how verification can be done without reliance on platforms / third parties.

Here's how it works, let’s say Alice is on Twitter and wants to prove to Bob that she is a NY Times reporter.

1. The NY Times will create a signing key pair, and publish their public key on their website.

2. Alice will also create a key pair.

3. Alice will create a document that includes her public key, name, twitter handle, position at the NY Times and any other information (i.e. “claims”), Alice will self sign this document.

4. Alice will send this to the NY Times, where the NY Times will verify the validity of Alice’s relationship, if valid the NY Times will sign this document.

5. The NY Times will publish this signed document or send it back to Alice to publish.

6. Alice will then link to the signed document from her Twitter bio.

7. Bob can now verify that Alice works at the NY Times by following the links and verifying the signatures and information in the signed document.

The repo [1] enables you to generate a key pair, sign an object, and verify signatures on a signed object. There is also a script to generate HTML pages to publish (it takes signed objects and a root public key as input). I also made a simple verifier page where you can link a signed document to verify signatures.

You can see a working example of how my cofounder, Jenna, and I leveraged this to establish a relationship between our domain and our twitter handles.

- https://v.arxsky.com/ - List / Index

- https://v.arxsky.com/jenna - Jenna’s Verified Credential

- https://v.arxsky.com/michael - Michael’s Verified Credential

- https://v.arxsky.com/verifier - Demo verifier to check signatures

I’m bullish on extending the usability of public key cryptography beyond its current uses (e.g. HTTPS, SSH). I’m also bullish on a self-sovereign world where this technology enables privacy, data ownership, interoperability, and security. Ultimately these will create a more trusted and human driven internet.

Excited to hear what the community thinks, and what questions or ideas you have.

Thank you!

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1 - https://github.com/arxskycom/ssi-verification/

2 - https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/03/30/new-york-t...

3 - https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/04/02/elon-musk-...