Stamp is a distributed, cryptographic identity system used to represent a personal or group identity in electronic systems. The Stamp project is both a protocol and a reference implementation, as well as a set of utilities for syncing your identity across your devices, publishing to an open p2p network for easy lookup, and syncing messages between identities in other p2p systems.

Stamp's goals are to be reasonably secure by default, have an intuitive interface, and to be a platform for other systems that use the concept of identity.

Download Stamp (CLI) Release verification

Getting started

First, download Stamp for your platform. If you want to compile from source, do the following (rust 1.70+ and cargo required):

mkdir stamp && cd stamp
git clone https://github.com/stamp-protocol/core.git
git clone https://github.com/stamp-protocol/net.git
git clone https://github.com/stamp-protocol/aux.git
git clone https://github.com/stamp-protocol/cli.git
cd cli
make
ln -s ./target/debug/cli stamp

Good job! First things first, run the ./stamp command. It will print a help message showing you all the commands you can run. At any point, you can do stamp <command> --help to get detailed help on how that particular command works. Stamp is made to be intuitive and self-documenting.

With that said, let's create your first identity:

$ ./stamp id new
To protect your identity from unauthorized access, enter a long but memorable master passphrase. Choose something
personal that is easy for you to remember but hard for someone else to guess.

  Example: my dog butch has a friend named snow

You can change this later using the `stamp keychain passwd` command.

Your master passphrase: [hidden]

Generated a new identity with the ID V-oZfxWJMrOqYSCNUMTMT4HO2e6HeEuwfxPoaVLyvIcA

It's a good idea to associate your name and email with your identity.
Would you like to do this? [Y/n]: y
Your full name: Jackie Chrome
Your primary email: jackie@talent.biz
---
Success! The identity V-oZfxWJMrOqYSCN has been saved.

Unless your name is Jackie Chrome, you would fill in the name/email fields with your own information. Now that you've created your first identity, it will be added to your local identity storage. Your identity will have three claims: your identity claim, your name claim, and your email claim. You can view them like so:

$ ./stamp claim list
 ID (short)       | Name | Type     | Value             | Created      | # stamps 
------------------+------+----------+-------------------+--------------+----------
 ZYNld3W4X6JlQs-7 | -    | identity | V-oZfxWJMrOqYSCN  | Jan 17, 2024 | 0 
 9SYQI67ipfJTEEXw | -    | name     | Jackie Chrome     | Jan 17, 2024 | 0 
 0Ap8r7tmpB5i9Qsh | -    | email    | jackie@talent.biz | Jan 17, 2024 | 0

But why settle just for what's given by default? Let's add a claim of our own!

$ ./stamp claim new photo /path/to/picture-of-you.jpg

Well done, your identity has a photo now. People who know what you look like can now stamp your photo claim, adding trust to your identity!

Stamp can also handle another type of claim: one that can be verified immediately. Both the domain and url claim types support direct verification. Let's try it out (note that you'll need to be able to write to a public website to do this).

$ ./stamp claim new url
Enter the URL you own: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jc-talent-agent
Claim added. You can finalize this claim and make it verifiable instantly to others by updating the URL
https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jc-talent-agent to contain one of the following values:

  stamp://V-oZfxWJMrOqYSCNUMTMT4HO2e6HeEuwfxPoaVLyvIcA/claim/GGrBktvTJgiUZthHn_N8OH6iYIwCb9NTn7xEXfkQ8igA
  stamp://V-oZfxWJMrOqYSCN/claim/GGrBktvTJgiUZthH
  stamp:V-oZfxWJMrOqYSCNUMTMT4HO2e6HeEuwfxPoaVLyvIcA:GGrBktvTJgiUZthHn_N8OH6iYIwCb9NTn7xEXfkQ8igA
  stamp:V-oZfxWJMrOqYSCN:GGrBktvTJgiUZthH

So let's update your HackerNews profile at the URL you entered to contain stamp:V-oZfxWJMrOqYSCN:GGrBktvTJgiUZthH. Done? Now things get spicy:

$ ./stamp claim check GGrBktvTJgiUZthH

The claim HflWay2xmCYnbqTK has been verified!

It is very likely that the identity V-oZfxWJMrOqYSCN owns the resource
https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jc-talent-agent

And just like that, you've proven you own your HackerNews profile. Notice you don't need a central server to check the validity of the claim (suck it, Keybase). You can do it from the comfort of your 430 sq ft $5,700/mo San Francisco apartment.

Ok, we've set up our claims. Now what? How do we actually, you know, Stamp™ things? Well, your good friend Zefram Cochrane just started using Stamp, so let's download Zefram's identity (generated using ./stamp id publish) and import it into your local storage:

$ ./stamp id import /path/to/zefram.stamp

Now Zefram's identity is in your local storage. First, let's check the fingerprint on his identity:

$ ./stamp id fingerprint --id Zef

If your terminal isn't from 1997, it will spit out a pixel art image representing the identity that looks like this:

Zefram's identity fingerprint, a 16x16 multicolored representation of an identity. His kinda looks like a lobster.

I see a blue and orange lobster...but you're free to come up with your own associations in a judgement-free environment. Fingerprints are a security measure. It's possible that someone might generate an identity with a string ID that's strikingly similar to Zefram's (like Zef-ZpmC18adg-xt), but it's highly unlikely that the generated identity will have a remotely similar fingerprint. Fingerprints are a great visual indicator of what an identity "looks like."

That's all well and good, so let's view the claims on this identity:

$ ./stamp claim list --id Zef
 ID (short)       | Name | Type     | Value                                                | Created      | # stamps
------------------+------+----------+------------------------------------------------------+--------------+----------
 Dr4qJ88VNLMraCqX | -    | identity | Zef-ZpmdW1CsA-zx                                     | Jan 03, 2024 | 0
 yMRZQTTIsPdmCuha | -    | name     | Zefram Cochrane                                      | Jan 03, 2024 | 0
 13_BWJcu_HrKFQV0 | -    | email    | zef@starfleet.org                                    | Jan 03, 2024 | 0
 j98fNieA0pRXwKS6 | -    | photo    | <4008 bytes>                                         | Jan 03, 2024 | 0
 HflWay2xmCYnbqTK | -    | url      | https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=xX_zefram420_Xx | Jan 03, 2024 | 0

Normally, you'd only stamp a claim if you were actually going to verify it. But because we're doing a tutorial, let's just pick a claim and pretend you've verified it, which is basically what SSL certificate providers do. We're going to stamp the identity claim.

$ ./stamp stamp new Dr4qJ88VNLMraCqX
You are about to stamp the claim Dr4qJ88VNLMraCqX made by the identity Zef-ZpmdW1CsA-zx.
Effectively, you are vouching for them and that their claim is true. You can specify your confidence in the claim:
    negative
        you are certain this claim is false and you are creating this stamp as a warning to others
    low
        you have done a quick and dirty verification of the claim
    medium
        you're doing a decent amount of verification, such as having them click a verification link in email
    high
        you have verified the claim extensively (birth certificates, retinal scans, fingerprint matching, etc)
    ultimate
        you have known this person for the last 50 years and can be absolutely certain that the claim they are making is correct
        and they are not a hologram or an android imposter

How confident are you in this claim?: low
Would you like your stamp to expire on a certain date? [y/N]: n
Stamp on claim Dr4qJ88VNLMraCqXBGoNO8ILbtizognoTwOvR3o7OtYA created.

Note the lack of fire gifs fire surrounding the "ultimate" option. This is a bug and we're working on it. This operation added the stamp to our identity. By default, stamps are saved to the stamper's identity.

Now, if Zefram wants to accept your stamp onto his identity, he can download your identity from StampNet (coming soon!), or the stamp can be exported and sent directly. All you need is a way to communicate this stamp to Zef. But, oh, look at that! There's an email claim with the value zefram@starfleet.org, so you can go ahead and send it there.

Let's export the stamp and email it to Zefram:

$ ./stamp stamp list
 ID (short)       | Stampee          | Claim            | Confidence | Created      | Expires 
------------------+------------------+------------------+------------+--------------+---------
 XEZpJOsE7UQ18Dt1 | Zef-ZpmdW1CsA-zx | Dr4qJ88VNLMraCqX | low        | Jan 17, 2024 | - 

$ ./stamp stamp export XEZpJOsE7UQ18Dt1 -b
MIIBYqAmMCSgIgQgXEZpJOsE7UQ18Dt1-plqsxGoOVesjaDo8edRw4YspRGhgcMwgcCgCAIGAY0a86QLo
SgwJjAkoCIEIBhqwZLb0yYIlGbYR5_zfDh-omCMAm_TU5-8RF35EPIoooGJqoGGMIGDoIGAMH6gJjAkoC
IEIFfqGX8ViTKzqmEgjVDEzE-Bztnuh3hLsH8T6GlS8ryHoSYwJKAiBCBl5_5mmZ1bUKwD7PGpTMdM_aw
pnBSqd9XehDsOLaAvcKImMCSgIgQgDr4qJ88VNLMraCqXBGoNO8ILbtizognoTwOvR3o7OtajBKECBQCi
cjBwoG4wbKAkoCIEIPvrP2OC-XFJnZ6T6jE4mDGdMKstcSEzC3QeuekaowlsoUSgQgRAI6i1po8uvsfQs
HD6xCjfkcTh2OBJQqalzxdJhqBrvRry9sZ9JSczR0o4Hmok_xwIu0Jr6NqiaUc2Wyj74h2nCA

On the receiving end, Zef might do something like this:

$ ./stamp stamp accept /path/to/stamp/downloaded/from/email
---
id:
  Blake3: XEZpJOsE7UQ18Dt1-plqsxGoOVesjaDo8edRw4YspRE
entry:
  created: "2024-01-18T05:03:11.371Z"
  previous_transactions:
    - Blake3: GGrBktvTJgiUZthHn_N8OH6iYIwCb9NTn7xEXfkQ8ig
  body:
    MakeStampV1:
      stamp:
        stamper:
          Blake3: V-oZfxWJMrOqYSCNUMTMT4HO2e6HeEuwfxPoaVLyvIc
        stampee:
          Blake3: Zef-ZpmdW1CsA-zxqUzHTP2sKZwUqnfV3oQ7Di2gL3A
        claim_id:
          Blake3: Dr4qJ88VNLMraCqXBGoNO8ILbtizognoTwOvR3o7OtY
        confidence: Low
        expires: ~
signatures:
  - Key:
      key:
        Ed25519: "--s_Y4L5cUmdnpPqMTiYMZ0wqy1xITMLdB656RqjCWw"
      signature:
        Ed25519: I6i1po8uvsfQsHD6xCjfkcTh2OBJQqalzxdJhqBrvRry9sZ9JSczR0o4Hmok_xwIu0Jr6NqiaUc2Wyj74h2nCA

----------
Do you wish to accept the above stamp? [Y/n]: Y
Stamp XEZpJOsE7UQ18Dt1-plqsxGoOVesjaDo8edRw4YspREA has been accepted.

And the stamp is accepted! Zef thanks you for your trust.

Would you like to know more??