did-nostr: Nostr DID Method Specification

This repository contains the unofficial draft specification for the Nostr Decentralized Identifier (DID) method.

Overview

The Nostr DID method (did:nostr) enables decentralized identifiers on the Nostr network. This specification defines how to:

• Create a DID based on a Nostr public key
• Resolve a Nostr DID to its DID Document
• Use the DID with Nostr relays
• Security and privacy considerations for this method

DID Format

Nostr DIDs follow this format:

did:nostr:<64-character-lowercase-public-key>

Example:

did:nostr:124c0fa99407182ece5a24fad9b7f6674902fc422843d3128d38a0afbee0fdd2

Example DID Document

When a Nostr DID is resolved, it produces a DID Document like this:

{
  "@context": ["https://w3id.org/did", "https://w3id.org/nostr/context"],
  "id": "did:nostr:124c0fa99407182ece5a24fad9b7f6674902fc422843d3128d38a0afbee0fdd2",
  "publicKey": [
    {
      "id": "did:nostr:124c0fa99407182ece5a24fad9b7f6674902fc422843d3128d38a0afbee0fdd2#key1",
      "controller": "did:nostr:124c0fa99407182ece5a24fad9b7f6674902fc422843d3128d38a0afbee0fdd2",
      "type": "SchnorrVerification2023"
    }
  ],
  "authentication": ["#key1"],
  "assertionMethod": ["#key1"],
  "service": [
    {
      "id": "did:nostr:124c0fa99407182ece5a24fad9b7f6674902fc422843d3128d38a0afbee0fdd2#relay1",
      "type": "Relay",
      "serviceEndpoint": "wss://relay.example.org/"
    }
  ]
}

This document defines:

• The DID identifier
• A public key that can be used for authentication and assertions
• A Nostr relay service endpoint associated with this DID

Key Features

• Schnorr Signatures: Uses the same cryptographic signature scheme as Nostr
• Relay Declaration: Service fields allow declaring associated Nostr relays
• Simple Creation: Generate a key pair and encode the public key as a 64-character string
• Deterministic Resolution: DID documents can be deterministically generated from the public key

Specification Status

This is an unofficial draft specification under development. It is being created within the W3C Nostr Community Group.

Relationship with Nostr npubs

In the Nostr ecosystem, public keys are often displayed as "npubs" (e.g., npub1...), which are Bech32 encoded versions of the raw public keys for human-friendly display. It's important to note:

• Nostr DIDs use the raw 64-character hexadecimal public key, not the npub format
• npubs are for display purposes only and improve readability in user interfaces
• For display in user interfaces, applications may choose to show the corresponding npub alongside the DID

Example mapping:

• Raw public key: 124c0fa99407182ece5a24fad9b7f6674902fc422843d3128d38a0afbee0fdd2
• DID: did:nostr:124c0fa99407182ece5a24fad9b7f6674902fc422843d3128d38a0afbee0fdd2
• Display npub: npub1cpxejnc58zpcuyh0pt8gvkzpv34qxceu0sqp7jec2nk9nut7p5zs4zyx4c

License

MIT License

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Resources

View the full specification by opening the index.html file in your browser.