An open trust protocol

Real-world trust, online and anonymised.

PeerBadge lets someone who knows you vouch that you're a real, trustworthy person. You carry that as a private, anonymised credential anyone can check.

See how it works Read the white paper

How it works

There are three principal actors in the PeerBadge protocol.

Holder

Community members who have earned the community's trust and hold the PeerBadge credential.

Signer

Someone the community already trusts. They vouch for a Holder by signing.

Verifier

Anyone checking a badge — a group, a marketplace, a counterparty.

Here's how they interact — seven steps, drawn as if they were done with paper and pen.

STEP 1 / 7Holder

Picture a name on a slip of paper

On paperExcept it isn't a name. It's a long string of characters that's the Holder's alone.

What actually happensThe Holder provides a key (e.g., a Nostr npub). Nobody hands it to them, and nobody else has a copy.

STEP 2 / 7Holder

Fold the slip in half

On paperStill whole, still theirs — just unreadable to whoever handles it next. The Holder folds it before anyone else touches it.

What actually happensThe Holder's device scrambles the key with a secret number only it knows. This is called blinding.

STEP 3 / 7Holder

Seal it in an envelope lined with carbon paper

On paperThe envelope hides the slip. The carbon means anything written on the outside comes through to the paper inside.

What actually happensOnly the scrambled key leaves the Holder's device. The carbon stands for the trick that makes this work — a signature on the outside also signs what's inside.

STEP 4 / 7Signer

Hand it to a trusted Signer

On paperA Signer: someone with real standing in the community. They ask two things about the Holder — are they one real person, and how far can they be trusted?

What actually happensThis is the human part. A Signer — a person, not software — vouches for the Holder by signing their request. Their judgement is the part no algorithm can do.

STEP 5 / 7Signer

They sign the outside, never seeing whose key is inside

On paperFirst the Signer writes the trust level, out in the open, where it's meant to be read. Then they sign. The carbon carries both through to the slip.

What actually happensA partially blind signature. The Signer can see the trust level; they can't see the key. So nothing links them to it — no record is ever made.

STEP 6 / 7Holder

Open it

On paperOut comes the Holder's key, carrying the trust level and the Signer's signature. Unfolded, the signature still holds.

What actually happensThe Holder's device unscrambles the key. The signature survives and still checks out — in milliseconds, unseen.

STEP 7 / 7Verifier

Now trusted online, without being named

On paperThe Holder shows the slip. Anyone can see that a trusted person vouched for them. Nobody can tell who they are.

What actually happensThe Holder can now operate online as a trusted and anonymous individual. A Verifier — anyone who checks the badge — can follow the signature back to the root of that trust network. And if the badge is abused, it can be revoked.

01 / 07

Use cases

What it's for

A PeerBadge says two things: 1) this is a real person, and 2) here's how much the people who know them trust them.

Trusted anonymity

Operate online from a position of trust, with no identity disclosed. For example, post on Nostr as a trustworthy nym without revealing your public identity.

Community management

Unlock roles, channels, and content for the most trusted members.

Keep bots out

Chats and forums where fake accounts are already a problem. One person, one badge. No phone number, no ID, no real name.

Skip the paperwork

Marketplaces that check vendors by hand can let that check travel. Vouched for once, checkable anywhere.

Recognise one of these? Have ideas for more use cases? Bring PeerBadge to your community — send this page to whoever runs it.

FAQ

Questions people ask first

How do I get peerbadged?

A Signer — someone your community already trusts — vouches for you by signing a request from your device. No forms, no account, nothing personal to hand over.

How do I start using PeerBadge?

PeerBadge is an open protocol, not an app. You use it through an app that implements it: create your identity there, then request a badge from a Signer.

Do I have to give up any personal information?

No. No photo, no scan, no document, no account. The Signer signs a sealed key, so even they can't link your badge to you.

Who decides who's trustworthy?

People who already hold that standing in your community. Not a single all-knowing company, not an algorithm. Every badge shows who signed it, so you can judge the source yourself.

Is a PeerBadge Holder certified as trustworthy by the developers of PeerBadge?

The Signer vouches for a Holder using the open PeerBadge protocol; it isn't an endorsement by “PeerBadge” itself.

What stops abuse?

Every badge shows who signed it, so a Signer's name sits on their judgement. And badges can be revoked.

Is PeerBadge owned by anyone?

No. Anyone can run a network, anyone can check a badge, and nobody can be locked out.

What if I lose my badge?

The protocol itself doesn't prescribe how. That's up to the implementation you use. Fedi's, for example, backs up your badge encrypted to Nostr and restores it from a recovery phrase, like a bitcoin wallet.

Get the code

Build on PeerBadge

PeerBadge is an open protocol. Read the spec, or learn about the first implementation.

Read the white paper

github.com/obi/peerbadge

Use an implementation

One protocol, many possible implementations.

PeerBadge SDK

A TypeScript / WASM library from Fedi implementing PeerBadge — sign, hold, verify and revoke badges.

Source on GitHub SDK docs

Building a PeerBadge implementation? We'd like to hear about it. Get in touch.