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BIP: TBD
Title: Bitcoin address authentication protocol (BitID)
Author: Eric Larcheveque, @EricLarch
Status: Pre-draft
Type: Process
Created: TBD

Abstract

The following BIP is an open protocol proposal allowing simple and secure authentication based on public key cryptography. By authentication we mean to prove to a service/application that we control a specific Bitcoin address by signing a challenge, and that all related data and settings may securely be linked to our session.

Motivation

Bitcoin related sites and applications shouldn’t have to rely on artificial identification methods such as usernames and passwords. Using a wallet for authentication purposes has many benefits :

  • "one-click" registration and login procedures
  • no need to remember or duplicate passwords
  • the server only knows and stores the users's Bitcoin public address
  • services always know the return address
  • optionally, connect to a decentralized identification system in order to populate registration fields (nickname, email ...)

See complete BitID presentation : http://bit.ly/bitid-slides

Specification

In order to access a restricted area or authenticate oneself against a given service, the user is shown the following UX :

The QR code contains the following data :

bitid:www.site.com/callback?x=NONCE
  • bitid is the protocol scheme
  • www.site.com/callback is the callback URL (https mandatory, cannot have arguments)
  • x is the NONCE must always be unique, and will be a link to the user's session ID on the site the callback is redirected to.

In order to have a http callback, add &u=1. This would be recommended for development purposes only.

The user has to confirm that she wants to authenticate herself on the target website, and has to choose which Bitcoin private key will sign the QR code contents.

If the user’s Bitcoin wallet is located on the same computer, a click on the QR code should launch the wallet application and supply it with the signature request. If the wallet is located on a mobile phone, the user should scan the QR code using the application. In both cases, the following dialog options should be shown :

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

After a Bitcoin address is chosen, or created on the fly, the full bitid URI is signed with the address’ private key. The signature and public key are then POSTed to the callback url.

Note : the signature must comply to the \x18Bitcoin Signed Message:\n#{message.size.chr}#{message} format

\x18Bitcoin Signed Message:
%bitid:www.site.com/callback?x=NONCE

The receiving server verifies the validity of the signature and proceeds to authenticate the user. Server-side, only the user's public key is stored. A timeout for the validity of the nonce should be implemented by the server in order to prevent replay attacks.

HD wallet derivation path

For HD wallets, the following BIP32 derivation path is proposed:

m/0'/0xb11e'/sha32uri/n

Where:
uri = "bitid:www.site.com/callback" (no parameters)
sha32uri = 32 highest bits of sha256(uri)
n = identity index, in case multiple ids are needed for this uri (default = 0)

Rationale

Classical password authentication is an insecure process that could be solved with public key cryptography. The problem however is that it theoretically offloads a lot of complexity and responsibility on the user. Managing private keys securely is complex. However this complexity is already being addressed in the Bitcoin ecosystem. So doing public key authentication is practically a free lunch to bitcoiners.

Backward compatibility

Since not all wallets will provide support for the proposed bitid scheme, a manual challenge is also possible :

All wallets (including Bitcoin Core) provide manual signing capabilities, therefore any user may use the BitID protocol at the expense of the UX.

Reference implementation

A demonstration of the workflow is available here :
http://bitid.bitcoin.blue

Source code of the demonstration service :
https://github.com/bitid/bitid-demo

Ruby implementation :
https://github.com/bitid/bitid-ruby

Python implementation :
https://github.com/LaurentMT/pybitid

Javascript implementation :
https://github.com/porkchop/bitid-js

PHP implementation :
https://github.com/conejoninja/bitid-php

Android Bitcoin wallet fork including support of BitID :
https://github.com/bitid/bitcoin-wallet

See also

Reddit thread on the need of such a protocol : http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1nkoju/bitcoin_core_dev_websites_do_not_need_passwords/

SQRL, a similar proposal not limited to Bitcoin : https://www.grc.com/sqrl/sqrl.htm