The Dawn Nexus Registry API

Underpinning any cryptographic identity based distributed network system, is a directory of cryptographic identities. The Registry and the Archives really are separable but cannot be separated because the Registry tracks identities whose veracity is a critical component in any given database's rules about what is a valid transaction. The identities stored in the Registry are the Actors in the Dawn Network.

Identities

An identity consists of a primary globally unique identifier, a human readable username, and a key pair, the control of the private key determining the ownership of the account.

Identities can be bound together, with cryptographic identities, signatures proving control can be stored alongside, for non-cryptographic identities (eg, facebook/google account), instead where they allow a public post, a proof of control based on the account primary key pair can be published.

Addresses

An identity is the same thing as a 'wallet address' in the Bitcoin style blockchain model. Rather than create arbitrary, potentially confusing limitations, the 'username' field of an identity can be an arbitrary string of valid URL characters, that is, there can be dot and slash ( '.' '/' ), and names like 'chat.dawn.network' or 'video/movies/horror', and even spaces, for such as 'the dawn network'.

There is no real way to rate limit the creation of these names so it is expected that there probably will be 'squatting' of names, however, with such a broad choice of characters for use in the names, it is unlikely to present a big problem. There is of course no problem with the trading of names, indeed at some point there would be a market for them. Names are a valid type of property in business, so they definitely have value.