Sentient Identity

OctoMY's Sentient Identity (SID) system provides cryptographic identity for human operators — and any conscious entity in the future.

What is a Sentient Identity?

A Sentient Identity (SID) is a cryptographic identity representing a human operator. It owns one or more Node Identities (NIDs) — the personalities a robot assumes.

Key properties:

Auto-created — a shadow SID appears on first boot, no setup needed
Cryptographic — Ed25519 keypair derived from a BIP39 recovery phrase
Encrypted — all data stored in an encrypted hive (Shufflecake volume)
Progressive — starts passwordless, upgradeable to password-protected

Why "Sentient"? We chose this over "Person" or "User" because it encompasses any conscious entity — humans today, and any being capable of subjective experience in the future.

Shadow vs Full Sentient

	Shadow (SSID)	Full (FSID)
Password	None	User-chosen (20+ chars)
Security	Physical access only	Password + encrypted hive
Identicon	Ghost shape	Normal face
Created	Automatically on first boot	User upgrades from shadow
Device owner	No	First to set password

The ghost identicon (faded, wavy-bottomed face) is the visual indicator that you're using a shadow identity. Tap it to upgrade.

SID vs NID

Aspect	Sentient Identity (SID)	Node Identity (NID)
Represents	A human operator	A robot personality
Created	Auto (shadow) or manual	Via delivery wizard or menu
Owns	NIDs, hive, recovery phrase	Config, trust, firmware settings
Switching	Locks hive, changes encryption	Changes active personality
Storage	SentientVault in hive	Per-NID folder in hive

One SID can own multiple NIDs. NIDs are mutually invisible — "Gustav" and "Johnny" on the same device never see each other's config or peers.

Components

SentientVault

Secure storage inside the encrypted hive containing:

Ed25519 signing keypair (derived from BIP39 recovery phrase)
Display name and identicon parameters
BIP39 recovery phrase (12 words, stored encrypted)
Known sentient contacts

SentientCard

A shareable identity bundle with disclosure levels:

Level	Shared
Minimal	ID + public key (anonymous but verifiable)
Basic	+ display name
Full	+ identicon + attributes

Cards are signed for authenticity and can expire.

Face Identicon

A unique 16x16 pixel-art face generated deterministically from the SID's public key. Each face has unique hair, skin, eyes, mouth, freckles, and blush. The identicon appears in the Lanyard, contact lists, pairing UI, and profile badges.

Shadow sentients show a ghost identicon (wavy bottom edge, cut corners) with the tooltip "Shadow identity — not password-protected."

How It Works

First Boot (Automatic)

App launches → StartupStateMachine finds no identity, runs the §SP-1 silent auto-create
BIP39 recovery phrase generated (12 words)
Ed25519 keypair derived from phrase; SID = sha256(publicKey)
Sentient hive created with the typed on-disk id SID-<sid-hex> and mounted with an internal shadow passphrase
Shadow sentient created with a SentientNameGenerator random name (e.g. curious_otter) + ghost identicon
Optional upgrade prompt fires once via SecurityUnboxingActivity (Set a passphrase or Skip)
Ready to use — first-boot is interruption-free past that single optional prompt

See the First Boot how-to for the full walkthrough.

Typed-Hive Taxonomy

Hives on disk carry their type and owner in their identifier (§HT-1):

On-disk id	What it stores	Display
`SID-<sid-hex>`	A sentient's vault, contacts, and per-node hive keys	Looks up the owning sentient and renders their friendly name + identicon
`NID-<nid-hex>`	A node's per-node data — NodeStore folder, OPAL history db, courier blobs	Looks up the owning node and renders its friendly name + identicon
Free-form name	General-purpose hive (future) — user-named, not tied to a sentient/node	Renders the literal name; no identicon

The user never sees the raw SID-<hex> / NID-<hex> strings — every UI surface (Lanyard, lobby activities, status widgets) looks up the owning entity and renders its display name. Renaming a sentient updates the display everywhere without changing the on-disk id; nothing has to be re-mounted.

This taxonomy replaces the pre-spec "System" hive name. Pre-makeover installations carried a literal "System" hive owned by the device's primary sentient; post-spec each sentient's hive carries the SID-derived id and there is no privileged System slot. The auto-create path in §SP-1 produces the first SID-<hex> hive without ceremony — the user sees their friendly name, never the system internals.

Upgrading to Full Sentient

Tap the ghost identicon in the navigation bar
Optionally change your display name
Set a password (20+ characters)
Hive header re-encrypted with your password (O(1) operation)
You become the device owner (Capture the Flag)
Ghost identicon transitions to normal face

Open Sentient from the navigation bar
Tap Share Identity
Choose disclosure level
Share via QR code or clipboard

Privacy by Design

No real name required — SID is an opaque hash
No central authority — no server, no email, no phone number
Recovery phrase is the backup — 12 words written down, kept safe
Device-independent — enter recovery phrase on any device to restore
Multiple identities — future support for separate work/personal SIDs

Preview the card that will be shared
Click Create Card to generate a QR code
Share the QR code with your contact (in person or via screenshot)
Optionally click Copy to Clipboard for the card data

Pro Tip

For maximum privacy, start with Minimal disclosure. The recipient can verify you're a consistent identity without knowing your name. You can always share a more detailed card later.

Managing Contacts

To view and manage your contacts:

Navigate to Sentient in Hub's main menu
Click Contacts
Browse your contact list

Each contact shows:

Their identicon
Their display name (or "Anonymous")
Trust status (Pending, Accepted, Trusted, Blocked)
Last seen time

Click a contact to view details and manage the relationship.

Trust Levels

You can set trust levels for each contact:

Level	Meaning
Pending	They shared with you, awaiting your decision
Accepted	You've acknowledged this identity
Trusted	Higher trust (e.g., verified in person)
Blocked	Rejected - won't receive messages from them

Pending Requests

When network sharing is enabled, the Pending badge shows how many contacts are awaiting your decision. Click it to review and accept or reject each request

Security Considerations

Key Storage

Your private key is:

Encrypted at rest with your account key
Decrypted only in memory when needed
Never transmitted over the network

Key Loss

Important: If you lose your private key, you lose your Sentient identity. There is no recovery mechanism (by design - this prevents identity theft).

Consider:

Backing up your account securely
Future: mnemonic phrase backup

Verification

Others can verify you are who you claim by:

Challenge-response cryptographic proof
You sign a random challenge with your private key
They verify against your public key

Hive Integration

Your Sentient identity is stored inside the encrypted Hive filesystem:

Encrypted storage: Your vault and contacts are stored at /.octomy/sentient/ inside the mounted hive volume, protected by the hive's ShufflecakeVolume encryption
Authentication: You must unlock a Hive before accessing Sentient features
Lanyard: The top-right corner of the Hub carries three controls — a bare-glyph hive button (visible only when a hive is mounted), the sentient chip (green, with your face identicon), and the node chip (blue, with the node identicon). Clicking the sentient chip opens SentientLobbyActivity for switching, renaming, or upgrading; clicking the hive button opens HiveLobbyActivity
Session: Only one Hive and one Sentient can be active at a time
Auto-focus: When mounting a hive, the passphrase input receives focus automatically

When switching Sentients, the current session closes first with a confirmation prompt.

Current Status

The Sentient Identity system is functional with the following features:

Identity creation and profile management
Card-style profile badge with inline editing
Unique 16x16 pixel-art face identicon for each sentient, displayed throughout the UI
Identity sharing via QR codes with disclosure levels
Contacts database with trust management
Hive-integrated session and authentication
Sentient data stored inside encrypted hive volume
Identity lab — parameter explorer for the face / iris / node identicon generators (reached from IdentityAssetsActivity toolbar)

Coming in future updates:

Ed25519 keys are now available (EdKey class, Phase 3 of encryption spec). Default algorithm switch deferred to Phase 4 of algorithm-agnostic-keys spec
Network sharing via paired nodes
Challenge-response identity verification
End-to-end encrypted messaging between sentients
Multiple sentients per account

Component Reference

Component	Description
`Sentient`	Core identity data structure
`SentientCard`	Shareable identity bundle with disclosure levels
`SentientVault`	Encrypted storage for identity and contacts
`SentientRelationship`	Contact data structure with trust levels
`KnownSentients`	Contacts database (SimpleDataStore)
`SentientIdenticon`	16x16 pixel-art face generator (39 parameters, deterministic from ID hash)
`SentientIdenticonWidget`	SvgWidget subclass for displaying face identicons
`SentientBadge`	Card-style profile display widget (uses face identicon)
`SentientCardWidget`	Reusable card display with QR option
`SentientListItemWidget`	Contact list item widget (uses face identicon)
`CreateCardWidget`	Disclosure level selector with preview
`ShareSentientWidget`	QR code share screen
`SentientActivity`	Main sentient profile activity
`KnownSentientsActivity`	Contacts list activity
`SentientDetailActivity`	Contact detail view
`CreateCardActivity`	Card creation wizard
`PendingRequestsActivity`	Pending contact requests
`SentientIdenticonEditorActivity`	Debug editor for identicon parameters
`HiveSession`	Session manager tying Hive + SentientVault
`SentientMetadataCache`	Non-sensitive display cache outside encrypted hive