Are There Risks Associated With Using Nostr For Your Identity

By @Level39

Mar 08, 2023

Nostr has created quite the hype in the last few months. A lot of people are migrating over to the new platform. @leve39 took the opportunity to write up a very detailed thread on the risks associated with using Nostr for your identity.

Level39@level39

🧵 1) Nostr is 👍, but there are limitations and serious risks associated with using Nostr for your identity. Let's take a closer look at what the issues are, why it needs to be solved and why using Nostr for identity can increase the risk of security vulnerabilities and attacks.

4:43 AM · Mar 5, 2023

93 Reposts · 299 Likes

Level39@level39

2) The ability to robustly secure one’s identity is critical to functioning societies. Without proof of identity, individuals cannot access banking services, gain employment, or receive voting rights. Solving decentralized identity is crucial for individual sovereignty.

4:43 AM · Mar 5, 2023

3 Reposts · 30 Likes

Level39@level39

3) There are 1.1 billion people who are not able to formally prove their identity — the majority of which live in Africa and Asia. For any decentralized social media protocol to be fully inclusive, worldwide, it must be able to robustly support identity for the unidentified.

4:43 AM · Mar 5, 2023

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Level39@level39

4) Currently, most online federated identities are controlled by centralized and permissioned entities, such as Facebook. Google, Mozilla, Apple and Twitter. Users can easily find themselves deplatformed by these companies, for a variety of reasons.

4:43 AM · Mar 5, 2023

23 Likes

Level39@level39

5) @jack has a bounty for a trusted Nostr-based GitHub. Nostr keys are being considered as a way to manage online identities. However, as we will see, using Nostr keys for identity can introduce significant security vulnerabilities and risks for users. bountsr.org/code/2023/01/1…

4:43 AM · Mar 5, 2023

2 Reposts · 33 Likes

Level39@level39

6) The Nostr protocol provides users with a public and a private key. The user’s identity is tied to this public key, as opposed to a username. Much like your Bitcoin, if you lose or leak your private key your Nostr identity is gone.

4:43 AM · Mar 5, 2023

23 Likes

Level39@level39

7) The average Bitcoin holder might be able to recover from a loss of some funds. However, losing one’s identity can be far more catastrophic — particularly if that identity is used for one’s career, unlocks access to other applications or signing powers.

4:43 AM · Mar 5, 2023

27 Likes

Level39@level39

8) Recently, @BTCGandalf accidentally shared his private Nostr key on Twitter, instead of his public key. It was an easy mistake that anyone could have made and is indicative of UX issues with the protocol. This gave everyone control of his Nostr account and his Nostr identity.

4:43 AM · Mar 5, 2023

35 Likes

Level39@level39

9) To solve the issue, @BTCGandalf had to go back to Twitter, disavow his Nostr identity, and announce a new Nostr key as his new identity. He plans to tie his identity to DNS records. However, if his DNS were to expire or be seized, his identity would be permanently captured.

4:43 AM · Mar 5, 2023

1 Repost · 41 Likes

Level39@level39

10) Nostr is a communications protocol, not an identity protocol. As such, it does not solve identity at the protocol level. Thus, it is in Nostr users’ best interest to have maximum interoperability with existing standardized decentralized identity protocols.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

38 Likes

Level39@level39

11) Nostr handles identity "out of band" — meaning that your identity within the protocol entirely relies on external identities. Nostr simply points to centralized or seizable sources of identity and everyone presumes that those sources are trustworthy and accurate.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

1 Repost · 25 Likes

Level39@level39

12) For example, when @jack first joined Nostr, he put his public key on Cash.app, which allowed anyone to see it was him. However, this approach is permissioned. If a user doesn't own the domain hosting their identifier, it can be easily deplatformed.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

30 Likes

Level39@level39

13) For the 1.1 billion people who are not able to formally prove their identity, purchasing a personal domain isn't an option. And even if they could, they are unlikely to be able to maintain a domain.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

2 Reposts · 26 Likes

Level39@level39

14) Domains are also easily blocked or taken down, especially in authoritarian countries, making them unreliable for identity verification. This has led to concepts such as "unstoppable domains" which many browsers still refuse to recognize.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

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Level39@level39

15) Furthermore, an attacker can create imposter identities and use those identities to falsely "verify" captured Nostr identities. Without a standardized method of attestations that users, browsers and machines alike can quickly and easily verify, confusion and fraud ensues.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

23 Likes

Level39@level39

16) Ironically, Nostr dev @jb55 recently lost his Twitter account. If his Nostr key was compromised his imposter would have full control over his Nostr identity and could point his “Proof Link” to a new Twitter account and claim it was his.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

1 Repost · 26 Likes

Level39@level39

17) If Nostr cannot be reliably used to manage one’s identity, then it will not be a reliable way to communicate in low-income countries and may even be considered an anti-pattern by vendors that are working to integrate with more robust decentralized identity protocols.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

14 Likes

Level39@level39

18) Nostr private keys are almost invariably managed by users without a secure enclave, making those keys easy to mismanage. Even if it were easy to encode Nostr keys into a secure enclave, users would not be able to revoke their keys in the event of theft or loss of devices.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

17 Likes

Level39@level39

19) This is because there is no way to do what is known as "key rolling" on Nostr — a best practice for security. That is, when a key or device becomes compromised or retired, you can't revoke it and keep using your identity. Imagine the following scenario…

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

2 Reposts · 21 Likes

Level39@level39

20) Let's say you use Nostr keys to manage a photo album service. 20 years in, an attacker gets access to your keys. With Nostr, you are powerless and can't block the attacker's access. In that sense, Nostr is a protocol for the benefit of relays, not users.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

16 Likes

Level39@level39

21) Without regular key rotation and revocation, an attacker could gain access to your Nostr identity, along with any authorized accounts, and spy on you indefinitely without your knowledge. It’s good practice to regularly roll and revoke keys, but Nostr doesn’t permit this.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

2 Reposts · 17 Likes

Level39@level39

22) The good news is that some (imperfect) solutions have been proposed to solve some of these issues in Nostr. For more details, read @brian_trollz’s excellent analysis here: bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/solv…

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

1 Repost · 27 Likes

Level39@level39

23) Nostr uses a secp256k1—a secure and widely used curve (including for Bitcoin)— to create secure digital signatures and other cryptographic operations. However, it is not performant for all applications.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

17 Likes

Level39@level39

24) Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) enable a party to selectively prove data (like your age) without revealing private details—providing a higher degree of privacy and security for personal data. Services with high volume ZKPs will prefer more performant “pairing-friendly” curves.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

16 Likes

Level39@level39

25) For example, GitHub recommends using curves that provide a high level of security and efficiency to implement and use. Curve25519 and Ed25519 are recommended, and are well-suited for use in systems like GitHub where performance is important.

4:44 AM · Mar 5, 2023

13 Likes

Level39@level39

26) Some applications need additional features and capabilities that are not available with secp256k1. Tying one's identity to secp256k1 may limit users’ ability to integrate with other systems and networks, creating potential interoperability issues for users.

4:49 AM · Mar 5, 2023

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Level39@level39

27) If a service requires a more performant elliptic curve at scale, Nostr would lack interoperability with that service. One way to solve these issues would be to use an identity “document” that could robustly list, rotate, revoke and manage keys. Hold onto that thought.

4:49 AM · Mar 5, 2023

9 Likes

Level39@level39

28) Nostr is a lightweight technology and much like the concerns of the Blocksize Wars its creators understandably want to keep it lightweight. However, the current practice of verifying "out of band" comes with real risks for identity that must either be acknowledged or fixed.

4:49 AM · Mar 5, 2023

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Level39@level39

29) Nostr users might not be aware, but a comprehensive decentralized identity solution was developed over the last few years and was recently standardized by @w3c, the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web, founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee.

4:51 AM · Mar 5, 2023

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Level39@level39

30) Last year, Berners-Lee promoted Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) as a new technology-agnostic web standard which permits users to inexpensively own trusted pseudonymous digital identities, without having to rely on centralized protocols.

w3.org

Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0

4:51 AM · Mar 5, 2023

20 Likes

Level39@level39

31) DIDs were formally objected by Mozilla, which used bogus environmental fear mongering over Proof of Work, to try to deny DIDs from being accepted as a standard. This was despite the fact that PoW didn't even appear in the standard. bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/mozill…

4:51 AM · Mar 5, 2023

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Level39@level39

32) This article, written before DIDs were accepted as a web standard, explains how DIDs work and how they make online trust and the entire Internet better for everyone, including users who lack reliable identity. bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/dids…

4:51 AM · Mar 5, 2023

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Level39@level39

33) DIDs are decentralized documents that can receive attestations — with a web standard known as Verifiable Credentials (VCs) — from the DIDs of trusted third parties, who in turn have attestations from other trusted third parties with verifiable DIDs — creating a Web of Trust.

4:51 AM · Mar 5, 2023

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Level39@level39

34) This unique combination of DIDs and attestations of Verifiable Credentials (VCs) allows even pseudonymous identities to become verified and trustworthy within a standards-based Web of Trust. Implementation of this standard could stop bots in their tracks, at virtually no cost

4:53 AM · Mar 5, 2023

9 Likes

Level39@level39

35) In 2001, Berners-Lee described a future where computers can perform authorized tasks and trust is instantly ascertained to unlock enormous amounts of productivity. For example, an AI assistant quickly matches your loved one with a medical specialist and secures an appointment

4:53 AM · Mar 5, 2023

11 Likes

Level39@level39

36) When web standards are combined, DIDs + VCs help bring about Berners-Lee's vision for the "Semantic Web", where the true power of the Internet is unleashed when humans + machines are able to both seamlessly and instantly trust identities with standard verifiable signatures.

4:53 AM · Mar 5, 2023

7 Likes

Level39@level39

37) Without standards, emails wouldn't be sent and web pages wouldn't be readable. If you want to natively and agnostically verify identity, as @ImperviousAi browser and @get_zion does, you need web standards

-justin- @justinrezvani

Every piece of content on @get_zion is signed by your DID. We need this @Breedlove22 https://t.co/tYghO62Myb

4:53 AM · Mar 5, 2023

1 Repost · 13 Likes

Level39@level39

38) When Nostr devs were presented with the standardized solutions, they downplayed issues, openly mocked devs and solutions, and declared war. This is not the behavior one would expect of a welcoming social protocol that should want increased interoperability.

4:55 AM · Mar 5, 2023

1 Repost · 13 Likes

Level39@level39

39) Instead of considering that decentralized identity was a complex problem that requires a robust solution, they decided to hurl insults and dismiss the prior work that solved the very problem that Nostr fails to solve.

Daniel Ƀrrr @csuwildcat

@4moonsettler @superphatarrow @GhostofMTC @xavierfiechter Most of the problem space for this whole technology area has already been solved, and I'm just sad they mockingly dismissed the work of thousands of people as 'ridiculous complexity', only to find maybe it was just robustly architected to deal w/ things they hadn't yet considered https://t.co/1NbYMXnSMj

4:56 AM · Mar 5, 2023

12 Likes

Level39@level39

40) Nostr devs complained that the standard was too verbose. This isn’t a valid complaint. Even the simplest internet standards are extremely verbose. For example, the spec for MIME types, which identify document types on the web, is extremely verbose.

datatracker.ietf.org

RFC ft-ietf-822ext-mime-imb: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies

4:58 AM · Mar 5, 2023

1 Repost · 9 Likes

Level39@level39

41) Implementing support for DIDs in Nostr would solve these issues, improve interoperability and would not be all that difficult to implement. Here is one proposal.

medium.com

Working Towards Interoperability: Decentralized Identifiers, Decentralized Web Nodes, Verifiable…

4:58 AM · Mar 5, 2023

2 Reposts · 13 Likes

Level39@level39

42) More recently, a @TBD54566975 engineer proposed a thought experiment for DIDs on Nostr. However, the method falls well short of the security and features of other DID methods. But, it might be the best option, given Nostr's architecture.

github.com

GitHub - TBD54566975/did-nostr

4:58 AM · Mar 5, 2023

8 Likes

Level39@level39

43) Nostr devs appear to be anti-web standards, believing their limited protocol, which lacks identity assurances, will become a standard for social media. However, no browser will natively support half-baked solutions that impart risks and vulnerabilities on its users.

4:58 AM · Mar 5, 2023

1 Repost · 15 Likes

Level39@level39

44) Amazingly, Nostr devs have not only declared war on web standards, but actually promote intentionally fragmenting and sandboxing web applications. fiatjaf.com/130cfaed.html This would essentially make it impossible for collaborative ideas like the Semantic Web to flourish.

fiatjaf.com

Replacing the web with something saner

4:58 AM · Mar 5, 2023

1 Repost · 9 Likes

Level39@level39

45) Nostr devs actually *want* a fragmented anti-social architecture for the web — one that mocks interoperability and expects the mainstream to follow an imperfect approach to identity that would put users at risk if it were widely adopted.

github.com

GitHub - fiatjaf/natrem: A protocol for simple native internet apps without JavaScript or client-side arbitrary code execution.

4:59 AM · Mar 5, 2023

6 Likes

Level39@level39

46) While Nostr devs may have personal reasons to dislike the mainstream web and standards bodies in general, intentionally restricting interoperability through robust web standards is a recipe for obsolescence, vulnerabilities and risks.

5:02 AM · Mar 5, 2023

10 Likes

Level39@level39

47) If Nostr devs acknowledge their protocol’s limitations and attempt to build their own identity system to allow users to manage their keys, they will be re-inventing existing web standards, years after those web standards were vetted by major browser vendors.

5:02 AM · Mar 5, 2023

11 Likes

Level39@level39

48) Ultimately we need decentralized protocols to succeed. However, if Nostr chooses to roll its own proprietary solutions for identity, it will be intentionally deviating from approaches that have already undergone intense scrutiny from organizations that make the web usable.

5:02 AM · Mar 5, 2023

1 Repost · 10 Likes

Level39@level39

49) Nostr folks do have a valid point that the new web standards currently lack widespread usage, and are generally in silos. However, this is no excuse for the fact that if key features for identity remain flawed or missing from Nostr it will only cause major problems for users.

5:03 AM · Mar 5, 2023

11 Likes

Level39@level39

50) Lack of rapid widespread adoption is always disappointing for people trying to implement new web standards. However, Using OpenID Connect Verifiable Presentations, there are over 70 major corporations who are interoperable today.

openid.net

OpenID for Verifiable Presentations

5:06 AM · Mar 5, 2023

7 Likes

Level39@level39

51) Groups like the identity.foundation are developing the foundational components of an open, standards-based, decentralized identity ecosystem for all people, organizations, apps, and devices.

identity.foundation

DIF - Decentralized Identity Foundation