Section 02 · Device Identity

Replace phone numbers with cryptographic identity

Every device is born with a DID anchored to its hardware secure enclave. Humans see a username; machines see a public key and a verifiable certificate chain.

Every AETHER device is born with a Decentralized Identifier (DID) anchored to its hardware secure enclave. Post-quantum keys, social recovery, censorship-resistant naming.

Creation

Enclave generates Ed25519 + Kyber-768 key pair. DID published to global DHT, signed by manufacturer attestation. Username bound via Verkle-tree commitment.

Verification

Mutual TLS 1.3 with hybrid post-quantum handshake. Reputation derived from signed interaction receipts; trust decays without recent good behavior.

Recovery

Shamir 3-of-5 social recovery across trusted contacts + optional hardware backup token. Stolen device revoked via signed kill-cert gossiped network-wide in seconds.

Human-readable

Usernames like @asha.mesh resolve via the AETHER Name Service — a decentralized, censorship-resistant DNS replacement.