# Your identity

### How can I secure my identity?

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<summary>You will soon be able to verify your identity</summary>

We are implementing an identity verification procedure that relies on [ORCID](https://orcid.org/), verification of your institutional email, and request of a community-bound identity verification token.&#x20;

Publishing a Node requires you to employ a cryptographic key that we will link to your ORCID profile. As the controller of the key, only you can publish updates to the Node you created. There are a variety of wallet providers to choose from. We recommend [Torus](https://tor.us/).&#x20;

We take researcher identity security seriously and it is presently an unsolved problem. While we are a member organization of [ORCID](https://orcid.org/) and are aware of steps taken to improve their security model, work remains to be done in this regard. Promising new approaches include [verifiable credentials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verifiable_credentials) and community-bound access tokens. We are working on implementing both.&#x20;

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### Will I need to verify my identity to publish a Node?

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<summary>It won't be mandatory for the beta.</summary>

There are inevitable tradeoffs between security and accessibility. We currently opt for accessibility and will adjust our policy as we scale.&#x20;

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### Can I publish my work anonymously?

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<summary>Don't do it. It's too early. </summary>

In the future, you will be able to switch your identity to anonymous with [ZK-proofs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof). ZK-proofs will allow you to prove you have certain credentials without revealing your identity. For this function, real identity is a requisite. This combines the best of both world, while minimising the threats of identity spoofing and trolls.&#x20;

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### What if I lose access to my key?

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<summary>We can rotate your Node access tokens to another key on the dPID registry.</summary>

This will require an identity verification procedure and is quite cumbersome for the time being. Our custodianship is a temporary measure as we implement new solutions that will enable your community or institution to act as your social recovery mechanism.&#x20;

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