Ed25519VerificationKey2020 Key Pair Library for Linked Data (@digitalcredentials/ed25519-verification-key-2020)
Typescript/Javascript library for generating and working with Ed25519VerificationKey2020 key pairs, for use with crypto-ld.
Table of Contents
Background
(Forked from digitalbazaar/ed25519-verification-key-2020
v4.1.0
to provide TypeScript compatibility.)
For use with:
See also (related specs):
Security
As with most security- and cryptography-related tools, the overall security of
your system will largely depend on your design decisions.
Install
To install locally (for development):
git clone https://github.com/digitalcredentials/ed25519-verification-key-2020.git
cd ed25519-verification-key-2020
npm install
Usage
Generating a new public/private key pair
To generate a new public/private key pair:
{string} [controller]
Optional controller URI or DID to initialize the
generated key. (This will also init the key id.){string} [seed]
Optional deterministic seed value from which to generate the
key.
import {Ed25519VerificationKey2020} from '@digitalcredentials/ed25519-verification-key-2020';
const edKeyPair = await Ed25519VerificationKey2020.generate();
Importing a key pair from storage
To create an instance of a public/private key pair from data imported from
storage, use .from()
:
const serializedKeyPair = { ... };
const keyPair = await Ed25519VerificationKey2020.from(serializedKeyPair);
Exporting the public key only
To export just the public key of a pair:
await keyPair.export({publicKey: true});
{
type: 'Ed25519VerificationKey2020',
id: 'did:example:1234#z6MkszZtxCmA2Ce4vUV132PCuLQmwnaDD5mw2L23fGNnsiX3',
controller: 'did:example:1234',
publicKeyMultibase: 'zEYJrMxWigf9boyeJMTRN4Ern8DJMoCXaLK77pzQmxVjf'
}
Exporting the full public-private key pair
To export the full key pair, including private key (warning: this should be a
carefully considered operation, best left to dedicated Key Management Systems):
await keyPair.export({publicKey: true, privateKey: true});
{
type: 'Ed25519VerificationKey2020',
id: 'did:example:1234#z6MkszZtxCmA2Ce4vUV132PCuLQmwnaDD5mw2L23fGNnsiX3',
controller: 'did:example:1234',
publicKeyMultibase: 'zEYJrMxWigf9boyeJMTRN4Ern8DJMoCXaLK77pzQmxVjf',
privateKeyMultibase: 'z4E7Q4neNHwv3pXUNzUjzc6TTYspqn9Aw6vakpRKpbVrCzwKWD4hQDHnxuhfrTaMjnR8BTp9NeUvJiwJoSUM6xHAZ'
}
Generating and verifying key fingerprint
To generate a fingerprint:
keyPair.fingerprint();
'z6MkszZtxCmA2Ce4vUV132PCuLQmwnaDD5mw2L23fGNnsiX3'
To verify a fingerprint:
const fingerprint = 'z6MkszZtxCmA2Ce4vUV132PCuLQmwnaDD5mw2L23fGNnsiX3';
keyPair.verifyFingerprint({fingerprint});
{verified: true}
Creating a signer function
In order to perform a cryptographic signature, you need to create a sign
function, and then invoke it.
const keyPair = Ed25519VerificationKey2020.generate();
const {sign} = keyPair.signer();
const data = (new TextEncoder()).encode('test data goes here');
const signatureValueBytes = await sign({data});
Creating a verifier function
In order to verify a cryptographic signature, you need to create a verify
function, and then invoke it (passing it the data to verify, and the signature).
const keyPair = Ed25519VerificationKey2020.generate();
const {verify} = keyPair.verifier();
const verified = await verify({data, signature});
Converting to and from previous Ed25519VerificationKey2018 key type
If you have serialized and stored keys of the previous
Ed25519VerificationKey2018
key type (for example, generated using
the ed25519-verification-key-2018
)
library, or using the Ed25519KeyPair
keys bundled with crypto-ld v3.x
),
things to keep in mind:
- Instances of those key types still contain the same key material, the only
thing that has changed from the 2018 suite to the 2020 suite is the way the public
and private key material is serialized when exporting. The 2018 suite key
types serialize using the
publicKeyBase58
and privateKeyBase58
properties,
and the 2020 suite key (this repo) serializes using corresponding
publicKeyMultibase
and privateKeyMultibase
property. - You can convert from the 2018 key type to the 2020 key type using the provided
Ed25519VerificationKey2020.fromEd25519VerificationKey2018()
method (see below). - They
generate()
the same key material, given the same seed
parameter. - Both the 2018 and 2020 keys produce and verify the same signatures.
Example of converting from 2018:
import {Ed25519VerificationKey2018}
from '@digitalbazaar/ed25519-verification-key-2018';
import {Ed25519VerificationKey2020}
from '@digitalbazaar/ed25519-verification-key-2020';
const keyPair2018 = await Ed25519VerificationKey2018.generate({
controller: 'did:example:1234'
});
const keyPair2020 = await Ed25519VerificationKey2020
.fromEd25519VerificationKey2018({keyPair: keyPair2018});
const data = (new TextEncoder()).encode('test data goes here');
const signatureBytes2018 = await keyPair2018.signer().sign({data});
await keyPair2020.verifier().verify({data, signature: signatureBytes2018})
Example of converting to the 2018 serialization:
const keyPair2020 = await Ed25519VerificationKey2020.generate({
controller: 'did:example:1234'
});
const keyObject2018 = keyPair2020.toEd255519VerificationKey2018({
publicKey: true, privateKey: true, includeContext: true
});
Contribute
PRs accepted.
If editing the Readme, please conform to the
standard-readme specification.
License
- MIT License - DCC - TypeScript compatibility.
- New BSD License (3-clause) © 2020-2021 Digital Bazaar - Initial implementation.