Possible Namecoin Use Cases (namespaces)

[phelix]

I'm working on a project to make the id/ namespace more useful. In particular, I have a half-working implementation of an OpenID identity provider which allows anyone holding an id/ name to sign in. You don't (and can't) have to register with the site and don't have a password, rather you have to sign in with a private key signature of the address holding your id/ name. Once the provider is fully working, one can immediately use one's namecoin id to sign into millions of OpenID enabled sites on the web - which I find pretty cool.

Woah. I am once again astounded about all the things happening here. Please consider creating an extra thread for this.

It's not quite clear to me how this can work with multiple identity providers... could I use the same namecoin id with multiple identity providers? Would I then always get the same identity or different ones?

In the future there may be more options to sign in, for instance with a different NMC address or even a PGP key, where the public key is stored in your id/ name at a special field to mark it is public key for authenticating this identity. I also plan to implement a browser plugin, which automates the challenge message signature for ease of use. (At the moment one has to find the address corresponding to the name first, and then use the command-line to signmessage the challenge.)

biolizard89 has implemented the TLS plugin and he has already got .bit resolution working, too. That might be a starting point.

If someone is interested to test the alpha version or help out with designing the page / a logo, please let me know! The code will be GPLv3 (free software of course), so anyone can set up another identity provider based on the same idea and code, so that this can be as decentralised as possible.

I would like to, but to be honest I am don't know where to start with all the Namecoin business going on right now.

What language are you programming in?

Signing should be very easy in Python using the new clients with dumpprivkey. Actually I have been playing a little with that for the file signing stuff, you might want to look at these:
https://github.com/nanotube/supybot-bit ... coinsig.py
https://github.com/Bitmessage/PyBitmess ... lcrypto.py

Also an nmcontrol plugin to do signing from a local name via an rpc call would be interesting...

[domob]

I'm working on a project to make the id/ namespace more useful. In particular, I have a half-working implementation of an OpenID identity provider which allows anyone holding an id/ name to sign in. You don't (and can't) have to register with the site and don't have a password, rather you have to sign in with a private key signature of the address holding your id/ name. Once the provider is fully working, one can immediately use one's namecoin id to sign into millions of OpenID enabled sites on the web - which I find pretty cool.

Woah. I am once again astounded about all the things happening here. Please consider creating an extra thread for this.

I'll open one when I have a first "semi-official" announcement to make. Should be soon, when I work out some last remaining things.

It's not quite clear to me how this can work with multiple identity providers... could I use the same namecoin id with multiple identity providers? Would I then always get the same identity or different ones?

You can always use the same name-id for multiple providers, but the consumer site you sign in with OpenID will treat them as different identities. Usually you can however associate multiple OpenID identities with a single account at a consumer site.

In the future there may be more options to sign in, for instance with a different NMC address or even a PGP key, where the public key is stored in your id/ name at a special field to mark it is public key for authenticating this identity. I also plan to implement a browser plugin, which automates the challenge message signature for ease of use. (At the moment one has to find the address corresponding to the name first, and then use the command-line to signmessage the challenge.)

biolizard89 has implemented the TLS plugin and he has already got .bit resolution working, too. That might be a starting point.

Yes, I may look at the plugin. I'm not planning on doing much namecoin logic at the start, though, I intent to call through to namecoin-qt's signmessage (at least for the beginning). Interesting for me will be learning how to write Mozilla plugins, but I'll try.

If someone is interested to test the alpha version or help out with designing the page / a logo, please let me know! The code will be GPLv3 (free software of course), so anyone can set up another identity provider based on the same idea and code, so that this can be as decentralised as possible.

I would like to, but to be honest I am don't know where to start with all the Namecoin business going on right now.

What language are you programming in?

Signing should be very easy in Python using the new clients with dumpprivkey. Actually I have been playing a little with that for the file signing stuff, you might want to look at these:
https://github.com/nanotube/supybot-bit ... coinsig.py
https://github.com/Bitmessage/PyBitmess ... lcrypto.py

Also an nmcontrol plugin to do signing from a local name via an rpc call would be interesting...

The server component is in PHP, but the code is already quite finished (at least for a beginning, there are many features that can still be added of course). I need mostly help with designing the layout and logos, since I'm definitely not good graphically. And with testing / feedback, as mentioned above I'll try to get up a working demo version soon (even without layout) and announce it.

[phelix]

[...] I intent to call through to namecoin-qt's signmessage (at least for the beginning). [...]

Why do it simple when you can also do it complicated? I really did not see the wood for the trees


Looking forward to openNmcId

[domob]

Another interesting usecase in my opinion is tor/. Of course there are not that many Tor hidden services I'd like to browse (in fact, I don't know of any which I want to use at the moment), but isn't the whole idea of namecoin being censorship resistant against DNS seizure very complementary to Tor providing censorship and seizure resistant hosting (since it is not known where the server is or whom to arrest)? Thus that should be a perfect fit, IMHO. For instance, if the US really decides at some point in the future to crack down on bitcoin such that .bit domains become useful to bitcoin sites whose TLD was seized, I can imagine that a lot of sites will be operated through Tor, too. Namecoin provides the ideal way for hidden services to advertise their .onion address without risk of exposing themselves (if done correctly), and it would reduce the risk for users to open a phishing site instead of the real one dramatically.

It shouldn't be hard to add tor/ support to the (existing?) browser plugin that resolves .bit domains. After all, you just need to rewrite .tor URLs into the corresponding .onion ones (and the user needs Tor, but that is clear).

[khal]

I've moved my reply to https://dot-bit.org/forum/viewtopic.php ... 4456#p4456