Signet

Decentralised identity verification for Nostr.

Signet is an open protocol that enables users to prove claims about their identity — age, parenthood, professional status — using zero-knowledge proofs, without revealing personal data or relying on a central authority.

What It Does

• 4 verification tiers: self-declared → web-of-trust → professional adult → professional adult+child
• Signet IQ (0-200, where 100 = government standard): weighted by professional verification > in-person vouches > online vouches > account age
• Verifier anti-corruption: 6 layers of accountability for professional verifiers
• ZKP age proofs: prove "child aged 8-12" without revealing exact date of birth
• Blue checkmarks for Nostr: decentralised, cryptographic social proof for everyone
• Community policies: any relay, client, or community sets their own minimum verification requirements

Why

Nostr has no identity layer. Anyone can claim to be anyone. This matters for child safety (a predator can create a fake child account), for trust (no way to prove "I met this person"), and for regulation (age verification laws are coming worldwide).

Signet solves this without centralised data collection. A professional verifies your identity in person. A ZKP credential attests to the result. No personal data is stored. No database to breach.

Quick Start

npm install signet-protocol

Display a verification badge for any Nostr user (Level 1 — a weekend to integrate):

import { computeBadge, buildBadgeFilters, meetsMinimumTier } from 'signet-protocol';

const filters = buildBadgeFilters(['<hex-pubkey>']);
const events = await fetchFromRelay(filters);
const badge = computeBadge('<hex-pubkey>', events, { verifySignatures: true });

// badge.tier => 3, badge.score => 106, badge.displayLabel => "Verified (Tier 3)"
if (meetsMinimumTier(badge, 2)) {
  // allow posting in verified-only community
}

See Signet in 5 Minutes for a full developer overview, or the full flow example for all 4 tiers, trust scoring, policies, and verifier lifecycle.

Protocol

The full specification is at spec/protocol.md.

Event Kinds

All identity attestations use a single NIP-VA kind (31000), differentiated by type tag:

Kind	Type Tag	Name	Purpose
31000	credential	Verification Credential	Attests to a subject's verification tier
31000	vouch	Vouch Attestation	Peer vouch for another user
30078	—	Community Verification Policy	Minimum verification requirements (NIP-78)
31000	verifier	Verifier Credential	Professional declares verifier status
31000	challenge	Verifier Challenge	Challenge a verifier's legitimacy
31000	revocation	Verifier Revocation	Community confirms challenge, revokes verifier
31000	identity-bridge	Identity Bridge	Link two keypairs via ring signature
31000	delegation	Delegation	Guardian or agent delegation with scoped permission
30482	—	Election	Voting extension: define an election
30483	—	Ballot	Voting extension: cast an anonymous ballot
30484	—	Election Result	Voting extension: publish tallied result

Crypto Stack

Layer 1: Schnorr (secp256k1) — zero new dependencies
         Credential signing, Merkle selective disclosure,
         ring signatures for issuer privacy, MuSig2

Layer 2: Bulletproofs (secp256k1) — age range proofs
         ~700 byte proofs, no trusted setup

Layer 3: General-purpose ZK (future, if needed)
         Complex threshold proofs, recursive composition

Status

v1.0.0 — spec complete, TypeScript library implemented, reference apps functional. Seeking community feedback.

All identity attestations use kind 31000 (NIP-VA, Verifiable Attestations), differentiated by type tag.

Implementation

This repo includes:

• src/ — TypeScript protocol library (signet-protocol on npm)

Signet is a standalone protocol. Any Nostr client can implement it independently.

Regulatory Compatibility

Signet is designed to satisfy identity verification requirements across jurisdictions:

Regulation	Position
UK Online Safety Act	Tier 4 exceeds Ofcom's "highly effective age assurance" standard
US COPPA	No PII collected — exceeds FTC's March 2026 flexibility policy
EU eIDAS 2.0	Compatible with selective disclosure direction
ISO/IEC 27566-1:2025	Compatible with outcomes-based age assurance framework
Australia under-16 ban	Proves age range without central verification

Contributing

Feedback, NIP discussion, and contributions are welcome. Open an issue or submit a PR.

Part of the ForgeSworn Toolkit

ForgeSworn builds open-source cryptographic identity, payments, and coordination tools for Nostr.

Library	What it does
nsec-tree	Deterministic sub-identity derivation
ring-sig	SAG/LSAG ring signatures on secp256k1
range-proof	Pedersen commitment range proofs
canary-kit	Coercion-resistant spoken verification
spoken-token	Human-speakable verification tokens
toll-booth	L402 payment middleware
geohash-kit	Geohash toolkit with polygon coverage
nostr-attestations	NIP-VA verifiable attestations
dominion	Epoch-based encrypted access control
nostr-veil	Privacy-preserving Web of Trust

Licence

MIT