Andrew G. Stanton - Tuesday, March 10, 2026

One of the quiet tasks I worked on today was publishing my OpenPGP public key.

At first glance this might seem like a small technical step. In reality, it represents something much larger: an effort to reclaim digital identity from centralized systems.

For most of the modern internet, identity is controlled by platforms.

You create an account.

You choose an email and password.

A company stores your credentials in a database.

If they decide to suspend you, your identity effectively disappears.

This model has several problems.

First, it centralizes trust.

You are forced to trust a company to maintain the integrity of your account. If their systems fail, if their policies change, or if their databases are compromised, your identity is affected.

Second, it fragments identity.

Most people have dozens of accounts across different services, each with its own login system and identity representation.

Third, it eliminates verifiability.

You rarely know whether the person you are communicating with is genuinely who they claim to be.

Cryptographic identity solves these problems in a different way.

Instead of relying on passwords, you rely on key pairs.

A private key proves ownership.

A public key allows anyone to verify signatures.

Nostr adopts this model directly. Every identity on Nostr is simply a public key.

Your posts, messages, and interactions are signed by the corresponding private key.

This creates a powerful property: identity is portable.

No company controls it.

No central server can revoke it.

Your identity exists wherever your key exists.

Publishing an OpenPGP key extends this idea beyond Nostr.

PGP has been around for decades and is still widely used for secure communication and document signing.

By publishing a public key and fingerprint, I make it possible for anyone to:

• verify messages that I sign
• encrypt communications intended for me
• confirm that certain statements genuinely came from me

The fingerprint is especially important.

A PGP fingerprint uniquely identifies the key and allows others to verify that they are using the correct one.

Without fingerprints, key substitution attacks become possible.

Publishing the key on a dedicated page also creates a public anchor point.

If someone receives a signed message from me, they can verify it against the fingerprint published there.

Over time I expect these systems to converge.

Nostr identities, PGP keys, and other cryptographic tools will likely interoperate more closely.

Instead of fragmented accounts across hundreds of platforms, individuals will maintain a small set of cryptographic identities that they control directly.

These identities will allow them to sign messages, authenticate to services, and verify the authenticity of information.

In many ways, this represents a return to earlier internet principles.

Before social media platforms centralized everything, the internet was built on open protocols.

Email, HTTP, and other standards allowed individuals to communicate without needing permission from a platform.

Cryptographic identity is the missing piece that allows that model to function securely.

Publishing a PGP key today is a small step in that direction.

But small steps matter.

They establish the foundations for a different kind of internet—one where individuals once again control their own identities.

Work With Me

If you’re exploring:

• Nostr authentication
• Sovereign identity infrastructure
• AI-assisted workflows
• Local-first containerized systems

I offer a limited number of advisory and implementation sessions for builders, teams, and ministries working in these areas.

Typical engagements include:

• Architecture session (90 minutes) – $500
• Implementation sprint – starting at $2,500
• Ministry / Foundation advisory engagement – $2,500

Early Adopters

I’m also looking for early adopters interested in running Continuum, a local-first publishing and identity system built on Nostr.

There is no cost for early adopters, and I’m happy to personally help with installation and setup.

Even if you’re just curious and want to see how it works, feel free to reach out.

Feedback from early adopters directly influences the direction of the project.

Contact: andrewgstanton@gmail.com
or DM on Nostr:

@9wvc…guvd

You can also support this work as a Continuum Patron ($250).