Hey everyone,

I’ve been thinking about how the Fediverse handles user accounts and logins for a while now, and I had a question.

Right now, users have to create accounts on specific instances on various platforms, which works but can sometimes feel a bit fragmented—especially when someone wants to interact across multiple instances or migrate to a new one.

Would it make more sense for the Fediverse to adopt a login system based on encrypted keys, like how NOSTR operates (or something similar)?

In such a system, users could have a single “universal” private key that serves as their identity across the network.

Here are some potential benefits I see:

  • Single Identity Across Instances: Users wouldn’t need to create multiple accounts for each instance, making it easier to interact across the Fediverse.
  • Seamless Migration: If your home instance shuts down or you switch to another one, your identity and data could remain intact since it’s tied to your key, not the instance.
  • Decentralization Boost: It might make the Fediverse feel even more decentralized, as user identities wouldn’t depend on a specific instance’s infrastructure.
  • Improved Privacy: Keys could also enable stronger controls over data sharing and access at the individual level.

Of course, there are likely challenges to this approach, such as handling lost keys, onboarding non-technical users, or ensuring compatibility with existing protocols.

But it seems like a conversation worth having.

What does the community think?

Are there reasons this wouldn’t work for the Fediverse, or could this idea help address some existing pain points?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

EDIT:

I suggested this over on r/Fediverse and a Redditor gave me this:

https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/ef61/fep-ef61.md

https://microformats.org/wiki/rel-me

So I guess that it is being worked on Fediverse - wise.

https://nostr.com/get-starthtml

https://www.nostr-ruby.com/core/keys.html