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The protocol

Underneath the DFOS product is an open protocol — a cryptographic identity and authorship layer that makes who-you-are and what-you-made independently verifiable, without trusting our servers to say so.

It runs on ordinary web infrastructure. There's no blockchain, no token, no wallet to manage — just signed records and content-addressed data that anyone can check.

Four things to know:

  • Every identity on DFOS is a protocol identity. Accounts, spaces, and groups each get a permanent cryptographic identifier (a did:dfos DID) backed by a chain of signed operations, created automatically — nothing to set up.
  • Today, DFOS holds the keys. The protocol is designed so identities can be controlled by their owners' own keys, but in the product today we sign on your behalf. Verifiability is live now; self-custody is where this is headed, not where it is.
  • Public posts are on the protocol too. A publicly readable post gets its own signed content chain on the public relay — verifiable authorship for the work, not just the identity behind it.
  • It's open. The protocol spec, libraries, and relay software are open source at github.com/metalabel/dfos, and the public relay is live for anyone to read — see Relays & verification.

The rest of this section covers what exists today: