DID Documents

The did:decentrl method embeds everything needed for communication directly in the identifier string — no registry lookups required.

The did:decentrl Method

A Decentralized Identifier (DID) is a globally unique identifier controlled through cryptographic key ownership rather than a platform-granted account. Alice controls her DID because she holds the private keys, not because a company manages her account.

Decentrl uses the did:decentrl method — a self-contained identifier that embeds all essential information directly in the string:

did:decentrl:{alias}:{signing_key}:{pre_key}:{mediator_did}

Because everything is embedded, applications can extract public keys and the mediator endpoint from the DID string alone. No network requests. No registry lookups. This makes did:decentrl ideal for rapid identity creation and immediate use.

Example

When Alice creates her identity with alias "alice" and registers with did:web:mediator.decentrl.io:

did:decentrl:YWxpY2U:z6MkpTzgH3Kj2w...:z6LSqR9vNp...:ZGlkOndlYjptZWRpYXRvci5kZWNlbnRybC5pbw

Anyone who receives this string can immediately:

1. Extract Alice's public signing key (verify her signatures)
2. Extract Alice's public pre-key (encrypt a contract request to her)
3. Resolve her mediator endpoint (know where to deliver messages)

W3C DID Document

Resolving a did:decentrl identifier produces a standard W3C DID document:

{
  "@context": [
    "https://www.w3.org/ns/did/v1",
    "https://w3id.org/security/suites/jws-2020/v1"
  ],
  "id": "did:decentrl:YWxpY2U:z6MkpT...:z6LSqR...:ZGlk...",
  "verificationMethod": [{
    "id": "did:decentrl:YWxpY2U:z6MkpT...:z6LSqR...:ZGlk...#signing",
    "type": "Ed25519VerificationKey2020",
    "publicKeyMultibase": "z6MkpT..."
  }],
  "keyAgreement": [{
    "id": "did:decentrl:YWxpY2U:z6MkpT...:z6LSqR...:ZGlk...#prekey",
    "type": "X25519KeyAgreementKey2020",
    "publicKeyMultibase": "z6LSqR..."
  }],
  "service": [{
    "id": "#mediator",
    "type": "DecentrlMediator",
    "serviceEndpoint": { "uri": "https://mediator.decentrl.io" }
  }]
}

The verificationMethod contains the Ed25519 signing key for signature verification. The keyAgreement contains the X25519 pre-key for initiating encrypted contracts. The service endpoint tells you where to send messages.

In Code

import { generateIdentityKeys } from '@decentrl/crypto'
import { createDecentrlDidFromKeys } from '@decentrl/identity'

const keys = await generateIdentityKeys()
const did = createDecentrlDidFromKeys(
  'alice',
  keys,
  'did:web:mediator.decentrl.io'
)
// → did:decentrl:YWxpY2U:z6MkpTzgH3Kj2w...:z6LSqR9vNp...:ZGlkOndlYjp...

Resolution requires resolving the mediator endpoint:

import { resolveDecentrlDid } from '@decentrl/identity'

const didDocument = await resolveDecentrlDid(did)
// → standard W3C DID document as shown above