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@reiver ⊼ (Charles) :batman:@reiver@mastodon.social (2026-05-15 01:11:19)
Internet domain name (ex: example.com) are a reasonable option for making identity on the Internet more human-friendly.
But, Internet domain names are a poor choice as the base primitive for identity.
At best you rent an Internet domain name. But, they can be lost if you don't pay the rent. They can even be seized — even if you do pay.
There are many examples of this this, but — consider Sci-Hub.
How many times has Sci-Hub had its Internet domain names seized. Numerous!
#FediDev #SciHub
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julian@julian@activitypub.space (2026-05-15 03:19:18)
@reiver@mastodon.social okay, fair, but I think dids are not a technically feasible solution because it is confusing for now (sorry @silverpill@mitra.social)
Maybe I just need to read up on DIDs and just do it... but domain names have the weight and inertia of decades of implementation.
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Evan Prodromou@evan@cosocial.ca (2026-05-15 03:32:03)
@julian @reiver @silverpill There are about 390M registered domain names. The system has, in fact, been used for decades. The Web and email depend on DNS.
Cryptographic keys as the root of identity are extremely hard for people to use -- about 10% of all Bitcoin wallets with money in them are lost for good. And there's actual money in those.
DNS >> cryptographic keys
silverpill@silverpill@mitra.social (2026-05-15 05:10:17)
@julian @reiver DIDs are not really hard to implement. However, to get the most out of them, a different application architecture is required, where you generate activities on the client side (this is similar to an ActivityPub client described in the spec).
No easy upgrade path for most fedi projects.