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README: Rewrite "Identity servers" section

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Richard van der Hoff 2016-12-02 10:42:10 +00:00
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README.rst
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@ -571,21 +571,28 @@ For information on how to install and use PostgreSQL, please see
Identity Servers
================
The job of authenticating 3PIDs and tracking which 3PIDs are associated with a
given Matrix user is very security-sensitive, as there is obvious risk of spam
if it is too easy to sign up for Matrix accounts or harvest 3PID data.
Meanwhile the job of publishing the end-to-end encryption public keys for
Matrix users is also very security-sensitive for similar reasons.
Identity servers have the job of mapping email addresses and other 3rd Party
IDs (3PIDs) to Matrix user IDs, as well as verifying the ownership of 3PIDs
before creating that mapping.
Therefore the role of managing trusted identity in the Matrix ecosystem is
farmed out to a cluster of known trusted ecosystem partners, who run 'Matrix
Identity Servers' such as ``sydent``, whose role is purely to authenticate and
track 3PID logins and publish end-user public keys.
This process is very security-sensitive, as there is obvious risk of spam if it
is too easy to sign up for Matrix accounts or harvest 3PID data. In the longer
term, we hope to create a decentralised system to manage it (`matrix-doc #712
<https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/712>`_), but in the meantime,
the role of managing trusted identity in the Matrix ecosystem is farmed out to
a cluster of known trusted ecosystem partners, who run 'Matrix Identity
Servers' such as `Sydent <https://github.com/matrix-org/sydent>`_, whose role
is purely to authenticate and track 3PID logins and publish end-user public
keys.
It's currently early days for identity servers as Matrix is not yet using 3PIDs
as the primary means of identity and E2E encryption is not complete. As such,
we are running a single identity server (https://matrix.org) at the current
time.
You can host your own copy of Sydent, but this will prevent you reaching other
users in the Matrix ecosystem via their email address, and prevent them finding
you. We therefore recommend that you use one of the centralised identity servers
at ``https://matrix.org`` or ``https://vector.im`` for now.
To reiterate: the Identity server will only be used if you choose to associate
an email address with your account, or send an invite to another user via their
email address.
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