We create a key for the sphere & throw away the private part. There are two big risks: compromise & loss.
Loss: You can lose your key.
Compromise: If someone gets your mnemonic, they pwn you. This is harder b/c there’s someone operating w/ that key out there somewhere.
We need key rotation b/c you could, in theory, rotate away from that identity and get a new one. We already do a fair job of keeping all of the key work locally.
Big question: How does 3rd person who followed me knows that I got a new key? Ultimately, we need a database.
These are the known options:
- blockchain
- centralized (DID placeholder via Bluesky)
- secret (to us) third option
- Constitutional consortium similar to how Facebook’s failed Diem used a legal structure to enforce no single entity could control 51% of the validator market.
For the blockchain thing, you need a log of authority change over time. Format: oldkey, newkey, timestamp?
A solution to this must be:
- a database
- durable
It can’t be in orb-ns because the records aren’t immortal. There also aren’t incentives to keep things around forever. Blockchains, by contrast, have an economic incentive to keep a thread alive. I really want a participatory incentive instead. Is this proof-of-stake?