Register an Identity#

The purpose of this tutorial is to walk through the steps necessary to register an identity.

Overview#

Identities serve as the basis for interactions with Dash Platform. They consist primarily of a public key used to register a unique entity on the network. Additional details regarding identities can be found in the Identity description.

Prerequisites#

General prerequisites (Node.js / Dash SDK installed)
A platform address with a balance: How to Create and Fund a Wallet
A configured client: Setup SDK Client

Code#

identity-register.mjs#

import { randomBytes } from 'node:crypto';
import { Identity, Identifier } from '@dashevo/evo-sdk';
import { setupDashClient } from '../setupDashClient.mjs';

const { sdk, keyManager, addressKeyManager } = await setupDashClient({
  requireIdentity: false,
});

try {
  // Build the identity shell with 5 standard public keys
  const identity = new Identity(new Identifier(randomBytes(32)));
  keyManager.getKeysInCreation().forEach((key) => {
    identity.addPublicKey(key.toIdentityPublicKey());
  });

  // Create the identity on-chain, funded from the platform address
  const result = await sdk.addresses.createIdentity({
    identity,
    inputs: [
      {
        address: addressKeyManager.primaryAddress.bech32m,
        amount: 5000000n, // Credits to fund the new identity
      },
    ],
    identitySigner: keyManager.getFullSigner(),
    addressSigner: addressKeyManager.getSigner(),
  });

  console.log(
    'Identity registered!\nIdentity ID:',
    result.identity.id.toString(),
  );
} catch (e) {
  // Known SDK bug: proof verification fails but the identity was created
  // Issue: https://github.com/dashpay/platform/issues/3095
  // Extract the real identity ID from the error message
  const match = e.message?.match(/proof returned identity (\w+) but/);
  if (match) {
    console.log('Identity registered!\nIdentity ID:', match[1]);
  } else {
    console.error('Something went wrong:\n', e.message);
  }
}

Attention

Make a note of the returned identity ID as it will be used in subsequent tutorials throughout the documentation.

What’s Happening#

We call setupDashClient({ requireIdentity: false }) since we’re creating a new identity rather than loading an existing one. This connects to the network and derives keys from the mnemonic, returning sdk, keyManager, and addressKeyManager.

Identity shell: We create a temporary Identity object with a random identifier and attach all 5 standard public keys from the key manager. These keys serve different purposes (master, authentication, transfer, and encryption).
On-chain creation: We call sdk.addresses.createIdentity() which requires two signers – the identitySigner (proves ownership of the identity keys) and the addressSigner (authorizes the credit transfer from the platform address). This submits an Identity Create State Transition to the network.