# Identity¶

Identity is tied to individual actors in the distributed ledger by Accounts. Accounts hold the associated data of the individual as metadata (optionally), but more importantly, there are a few cryptographic elements to associate and authenticate the individual to the account.

## Accounts¶

An account consists of the following elements:

1. An elliptic Public key
3. A node key of the screen hosting the account.
4. An ISO timezone code
5. An arbitray key-value metadata store of personal information (name, company, geography, etc)

It is uniquely identified by its elliptic curve key pair (Public and Private key) as well as its address. The address itself is derived from the Public key of the account. The key pair is generated using elliptic curve secp256k1.

## Private Keys¶

An elliptic curve private key is the private integer that generates the public key of elliptic curve multiplication with the chosen curve’s base point. All information for a user account can be derived from the private key.:

-----BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY-----
MHQCAQEEICbWyFXHqbJ4AkCroGfkkmtZmaxEtDHjIHgB9yi1VbzpoAcGBSuBBAAK
oUQDQgAEHG2b0e5y/jZ/OhaALU509VtkNC49VE6/OZT8+/va0sxP+sHg+ZwOeaa4
9EmFUOIddlHVwjpeq9j8tX5glwToKw==
-----END EC PRIVATE KEY-----


Private keys can also be layered with additional layer of protection in which the key body itself is encrypted with a passphrase and then EDE3 encrypted, requiring the user to supply the phrase before using the key.:

-----BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY-----
Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
EK-Info: DES-EDE3-CBC,BE261F2652B3D42D
MHQCAQEEIFzLhwiyvt76NlYgGbpzPlV3FQk8ZEnZ7loxmRYnzPKzoAcGBSuBBAAK
oUQDQgAEBbEN3tve82UYi+UOI3JbDKHnbVyNq7SqCaTCHGgYodcBvp3eQEWcZdO/
XW2hfHV0XAcxVdgEBzgpwkBUpXoZIQ==
-----END EC PRIVATE KEY-----


## Public Keys¶

The public key is the compressed point stored as the binary representation of the x and y coordinates of the elliptic curve point compressed and base64 encoded.:

-----BEGIN EC PUBLIC KEY-----
MFYwEAYHKoZIzj0CAQYFK4EEAAoDQgAEHG2b0e5y/jZ/OhaALU509VtkNC49VE6/
OZT8+/va0sxP+sHg+ZwOeaa49EmFUOIddlHVwjpeq9j8tX5glwToKw==
-----END EC PUBLIC KEY-----


Keys given through the SDK access are specified in hexadecimal form, in which a 128 character string encodes the public key, the first 64 bytes are the first coordinate:

pub = af0b33d9e8af2b771200a87012fc6aa07b391d8ac01b40975359a7d35d38f13b9d1d65b28a9a1a413436cf6dc5bafcb551a4953b8f30c751d111262ed07a13fd
pub_x = af0b33d9e8af2b771200a87012fc6aa07b391d8ac01b40975359a7d35d38f13b
pub_y = 9d1d65b28a9a1a413436cf6dc5bafcb551a4953b8f30c751d111262ed07a13fd