Conversation

Notices

1. Alex Gleason (alex@gleasonator.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Oct-2022 08:46:07 JST Alex Gleason

   I’m reading about ATProtocol so you don’t have to.

   Instead of ActivityPub IDs (which are URLs like https://gleasonator.com/users/alex), they use DIDs (“decentalized ID”). What’s a DID? Absolutely nothing - it’s an 87 page document describing the format of a string that starts with did: and no implementation details.

   The implementation is up to you. Well, there are some already. We have did:etho:Ac9aB5Fc04Dc1cB1789Af75b523Bd23C70B2D717 for Ethereum addresses, did:dns:alexgleason.me for domain names, and there’s even one called did:id:xxx for MasterCard’s proprietary/centralized(!) ID network. DIDs are in the format did:<method>:<id>, where the method can be a known method enshrined by the w3c, or a custom one.

   So what’s ATProtocol using? A custom “work in progress” DID method called “placeholder” (did:plc:<id>) that… seems to talk to a centralized server?

   Remember when Bluesky was under development for 2 years because they couldn’t figure out how to do decentralized identity. So what did they do? THEY JUST GAVE UP?

   The did:plc spec is a vague “work in progress”: https://atproto.com/specs/did-plc

   We cheekily titled the method “Placeholder”, because we don’t want it to stick around. We’re actively hoping to replace it with something less centralized.

   So they still haven’t actually solved the core problem they set out to solve… are they going to resolve DIDs by talking to a centralized service? I suppose they thought since DID has the word “decentralized” in it, that’s good enough to move forward.

   This is not inspiring confidence.

   • GNU social JP likes this.
   • Alex Gleason (alex@gleasonator.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Oct-2022 08:46:07 JST Alex Gleason

     in reply to
     What the FUCK is this?? https://did-did.spruceid.com/
     
     Surely a joke.
     GNU social JP likes this.
   • Alex Gleason (alex@gleasonator.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Oct-2022 08:46:26 JST Alex Gleason

     in reply to

     • Curtis Rock
     That's in theory what the spec author wants it to do. But if you take a look at the list of DID methods: https://w3c.github.io/did-spec-registries/#did-methods
     
     ...they don't all fulfill that promise!
     GNU social JP likes this.
   • Curtis Rock (curtis@social.teci.world)'s status on Friday, 28-Oct-2022 08:46:28 JST Curtis Rock

     in reply to

     Here’s the DID use case

     the design enables the controller of a DID to prove control over it without requiring permission from any other party