Two things that look the same

Pairs people confuse on Nexus Market, and the one test between them

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Nexus market mirrors

nexusb2l7fmqnefwphyy7m5zjhlkytlbo7qbb5lu5dlczr3azgii2gyd.onion
nexusma2iegzo7atzwbrwxhcdopyri3vare2twibldnlc3txqjdeb5yd.onion
nexusabcdpvtnivv6owtqjkvd22k5x3hlpofkgjqjmgzltlde6mwe2qd.onion

Published as supplied. Nothing here is monitored, so none of this is a claim that any address opens right now.

Words / Pair 40 of 41

Who granted it, and what were they promising

One is granted. The other is demonstrated over and over by the same key producing text you can check without asking anyone permission.

Granted by whom

A badgeA

A label the interface draws next to a name

Something the operator of the interface decided to display. It might mean an account is old, or that a fee was paid, or that somebody looked at something once. It means what its grantor says it means, and that meaning can change without notice.

An identityB

A key that keeps signing

A private key that has produced text you have checked, more than once, over a period. It is not granted by anybody and it does not depend on any interface being honest. It survives the account, the label and the page.

Badges do useful work. They compress a lot of history into a small mark and they save everybody time. The trouble starts when a reader carries the badge across into questions it was never answering, and the biggest of those is whether the person now writing to you is the person the badge was granted to.

A badge lives on a page. It is drawn by whoever draws the page. If you are looking at a page you are not certain about, the badge is a picture of a badge, and a convincing one, since drawing it takes no key and no permission from anybody.

What a label can and cannot carry

The gap between the two is easiest to see when the interface goes away. If the page you knew is gone tomorrow, every badge on it is gone with it, and you are left holding a name you cannot check. A fingerprint written down in your own notes is unaffected by any of that. It keeps working wherever the person turns up next, which is the only test of an identity that ever really counts.

Ask for a line and check it

The request a label cannot meet

Ask the person to sign a short line of your choosing, then check the signature against a fingerprint you already hold for them. A badge cannot answer that request and an identity can.

Two things make that a real test rather than a ritual. The line has to be yours, so an old signed statement cannot be dredged up to satisfy it. And the fingerprint has to come from your own record rather than from whatever they send you, since a message that supplies its own fingerprint is only agreeing with itself. Both traps have pages of their own, on old statements against current ones and on good signatures from the wrong key.

When there is no key in the picture

Plenty of the time nobody has a key and nobody is going to get one. The label is all there is. That is a normal position to be in and it does not have to stop you, but it does have to change the size of what you put at risk, since you have no way of telling this party from anybody who can be shown next to the same mark.

Treat it as an unproven counterparty throughout and keep the exposure small enough that being wrong is an annoyance. What you must not do is let a run of good experiences quietly convert the badge into an identity in your head. The label did not become checkable while you were not looking, and the day it matters is the day something unusual is asked of you.

If you get it the wrong way round

If you treat an identity as a mere badge
You dismiss a person who can prove exactly what they claim, and you spend longer than you needed to on a deal that was already settled. The loss is patience.
If you treat a badge as an identity
You extend confidence built up by one party to whoever is currently sitting behind a label. Where money follows that confidence, the label will not be there when you go looking for it.
If it is a badge
Read it as background colour. Let it raise a mild expectation and never let it settle a question about money, an address, or where to send anything.
If it is an identity
Record the fingerprint yourself, somewhere outside any interface, and reuse that record every time. An identity you have to look up on their page each time is a badge with extra steps.

Questions readers send about this pair

A badge and a key both point the same way. Is that not stronger?

It is no stronger than the key on its own. The key already settles who produced the text, and the badge adds a claim from a party you cannot audit. Agreement between a strong test and a weak one is just the strong test.

They refuse to sign anything. Is that suspicious?

It is not proof of anything, but it does leave you where you started, with a label and no way to check it. Weigh that against what you were about to commit.

Can a badge be taken away?

By whoever granted it, at any time, for reasons that need not be published. That is the shape of the thing. A fingerprint you recorded yourself cannot be withdrawn by anyone.

Every page here

AddressesGetting inMoneyOrdersPeopleWordsDown for now, or finished for goodOld address, or one built to be misreadSame page at two addresses, and only one is theirsThe redirect and the string it stands in forYour path through Tor, or the far endDid the set move, or did your copy slipLoading proves a server answered, and nothing moreRate limiting against a password that no longer matchesWhen the puzzle is broken and when the reader isA door you shut yourself against a lock somebody changedLogged out by a clock against logged out by a decisionA code that does not match against a clock that does notAn absence against a single character out of placeA wait somebody planned against a wait nobody didA deposit that is slow, or a deposit that is goneThe address expired, or it was never issued to youA rule about release, or a decision about youWho took the difference, the operator or the networkA saving on quantity, or a saving on protectionMoney back, or the end of the argumentStill moving, or already refusedStill settling, or short by a fractionA date with something behind it, and a date withoutOne request moves a clock, the other moves the moneyAsking for a ruling, or handing over informationA word in a database, and an event in a recordNothing new to report is not the same as bad newsA rule that runs by itself, and a date somebody prefersSilence and being ignored look identicalQuiet is not the same as goneFeedback tells you a mood, evidence tells you a factWhat a signature actually provesThe market only speaks in one placeAn empty history and a claimed historyThe result is good. Whose key was it?The same clean result, months apartYou cannot check an image, however clear it isOne of these strings was chosen by somebodyPosted where, and written by whomWho granted it, and what were they promisingTwo lists of addresses, two different guaranteesHow to read a pairEvery pairThe testsThe costsMirrorsQuestions