The KERI Foundation

At the heart of the autonomous identity revolution

Clear guidance

“We offer clear guidance because we have a vision. We keep making choices and explain them to people involved.”

~ Sam Smith

KERI solves

“KERI solves a complicated technical problem (more than Linux). There is no such thing as an opinion on security. It’s either good or broken.”

~ Sam Smith

Foolproof

“People don’t want to understand KERI, so we have to invent and implement a way to prevent incorrect use —so that you can’t use it incorrectly.”

~ Sam Smith

Assignment offers senior and developer

High-Level Python Software Developer
(m/f/d)

KERI Software Developer
(m/f/d)

Funded development, guided by Dr. Samuel M. Smith, the creator of KERI.

Our site is dedicated to the promotion, development, and support of the Key Event Receipt Infrastructure (KERI) protocol.

Co-founded by Sam Smith, the inventor of KERI, our foundation aims to create the infrastructure for the trust-spanning layer of the Internet, using the most open-source software license.

The foundation provides the financial resources to overcome any barriers.

Samuel Smith posing at a lake-side with a mountain in the background. — Dr. Samuel M. Smith, the creator of KERI

Identity and Security

The problem with Internet security is that it’s based on flawed identity, and security experts don’t understand identity well enough to fix it.

The problem with Internet identity is that it’s based on flawed security, and identity experts don’t understand security well enough to fix it.

KERI’s design reflects a sufficient understanding of both security and identity to fix both Internet identity and Internet security at the same time.

~ Samuel Smith, August 2024

Key Event Receipt Infrastructure (KERI) is the first truly fully decentralized identity system.

Truly Decentralized Identity

KERI is the first truly decentralized identity system. It is ledger-less which means it doesn’t need to use a ledger at all or ledger-portable which means that its identifiers are not locked to any given ledger and may switch as needed. In other words KERI identifiers are truly portable.

KERI is inherently supportive of GDPR (global data protection rights) compliance. KERI provides non-intertwined identifier trust bases which means that a given identifier’s data may be erased and truly forgotten.

Self-Certifying Identifiers

KERI has a decentralized secure root-of-trust based on cryptographic self-certifying identifiers. It uses hash chained data structures called Key Event Logs that enable ambient cryptographic verifiability. In other words, any log may be verified anywhere at anytime by anybody. It has separable control over shared data which means each person or entity truly controls their own identifiers.