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Generating and Managing DIDs & Cryptographic Keys

The service.pem file contains your storage provider's cryptographic identity, which corresponds to its DID. This single file is shared by all Piri services you operate to maintain a consistent identity.

Prerequisites

Before generating keys, ensure you have:

Key Requirements

Piri requires an Ed25519 private key. Ed25519 is a modern elliptic curve signature scheme.

Generating a PEM File & DID

Step 1: Generate a new Ed25519 key

piri identity generate > service.pem

Step 2: Verify and derive your DID

piri identity parse service.pem

Example output: did:key:z6MkhaXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Security Considerations

  • Protect this file: It contains your private key
  • Set appropriate file permissions: chmod 600 service.pem
  • Backup securely: Loss of this file means loss of your provider identity

Preparing Your Wallet File

Export your Filecoin wallet address to a hex file:

# Export wallet from Lotus to hex format
lotus wallet export YOUR_DELEGATED_ADDRESS > wallet.hex

This wallet file will be used during the initialization process to import your wallet into Piri.

Next Steps

After generating your keys: