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Public posts on the protocol

When you make a post publicly readable, it gets a life on the protocol — just like a profile, but for the work itself. The post becomes its own signed content chain, projected to the public relay, where anyone can fetch it and verify it without trusting our servers.

Who signs​

Two signatures make a public post verifiable:

  • The space's protocol identity creates and signs the post's chain — this is how "this space published it" is provable.
  • The credited author signs their own claim on the post — this is how "this person made it" is provable.

So both facts stand on their own cryptographically: the space that published the work, and the person who made it.

Only public posts, only the public part​

Only posts that are explicitly publicly readable are projected to the relay. Members-only content never leaves the space.

And only the public part of the post travels. If the post has a fold, what's below it stays inside the space and is not part of the signed document. Topics, emails, and memberships are never part of it either — the document is the post's public content, and nothing more.

A settling delay​

A post doesn't hit the protocol the instant it's published. There's a deliberate settling window first, so a quick typo fix in the moments after publishing doesn't get immortalized on the relay. The post settles, then it's projected.

Making it private again is immediate​

Un-publicizing a post — or deleting it — revokes its public readability at the relay right away. There's no settling delay on the way out: the standing read credential is revoked, and the post is no longer publicly readable.

Verify it yourself​

Same as profiles: fetch the post from the relay and verify the signatures, the chain, and the document end-to-end with open-source tools — no DFOS account, no trust in DFOS servers. See Relays & verification.