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An impact report from the front-lines of nostr relay development.
NIP-05
Nostr address, nostr.json, DNS-based identifier, verified identifier
A Nostr spec that maps human-readable identifiers like `name@domain.com` to public keys via a JSON file hosted on the domain.
NIP-05 maps human-readable identifiers like alice@example.com to Nostr public keys using a JSON file on the domain's server. A client that wants to verify the identifier fetches https://example.com/.well-known/nostr.json?name=alice and checks that the returned pubkey matches the one the user claims on their profile.
The identifier is optional. The underlying identity is still the pubkey. NIP-05 only asserts that the user controls the domain where the identifier lives. Losing the domain means losing the NIP-05, but the Nostr account keeps working with the same keypair.
Clients display the identifier as a handle next to the name or as a string the user can share instead of a raw npub. Hosting services like nostrcheck.me, iris.to, and nostrplebs.com offer NIP-05 addresses for users who do not run their own domain.