---
title: "Identity and keys"
url: https://docs.loot.build/concepts/identity
group: "Concepts"
status: written
summary: "Ed25519 keypairs, fingerprints, and what a keyring holds."
---

# Identity and keys

> Ed25519 keypairs, fingerprints, and what a keyring holds.

An **identity** is a keyholder — an ed25519 keypair minted at `loot init`. Visibility is ultimately enforced by who holds the decryption key for a piece of content: "permissioning is key management." Names like `alice` are local nicknames bound to a globally-stable public key through the peer registry.