Pubky Core: Build the next web
Pubky · Business · Other
Pubky Core is an open protocol that gives you a self-sovereign identity and lets you store your data on homeservers you choose.
About Pubky Core: Build the next web
What Is Pubky Core
Pubky Core is the open protocol behind the Pubky project, a decentralized web protocol for building apps where people own their identity, data and connections instead of renting them from a platform. Your public key becomes your permanent identity, so there are no usernames and no sign-up forms tied to one company.
The protocol solves a problem people feel the moment a service shuts down or bans an account: everything they built disappears with it. On Pubky, your user-owned data sits on a homeserver you pick, and you can move it somewhere else without losing anything. Apps find your data through PKARR records published to the Mainline DHT, the same proven network BitTorrent has leaned on for more than 15 years.
The trade-offs are real. Pubky does not run on a blockchain, so it stays fast and free, but that also means no token to earn and no built-in payments yet. Paykit and Pubky Noise, the payment and encrypted messaging pieces, are still works in progress. The core protocol, the SDK, Pubky Ring and the social demo app are the parts you can use today.
Getting Started
- Install Pubky Ring on iOS or Android and generate a key pair, which becomes your identity.
- Publish a PKARR record so other clients can look up where your data lives.
- Pick a homeserver and store your files there through the HTTP storage API.
- Open an app such as pubky.app, sign in with your key, and start posting, sharing or building.
Product Information
A quick look at Pubky Core: Build the next web's pricing, supported platforms, and performance.
Best for
The users, tasks, and scenarios where this tool fits best.
Users
- People who want to own their online accounts
- Posters and communities tired of moderation lock-in
- Privacy-minded mobile users
Tasks
- Running a personal homeserver
- Building censorship-resistant apps
- Sharing and commenting across sites
Scenarios
- Migrating away from a closed platform
- Self-hosting with Docker
- Trying a decentralized social app
Key features
Identity as a public key
There are no usernames on Pubky. You generate a cryptographic key pair, and the public key is your permanent identity across every app in the network. Sign-up, sign-in and third-party app authorization all run on this key, so you never hand a password to a platform and you can prove an account is yours.
Homeserver storage over HTTP
A Pubky homeserver stores and serves your data. It exposes HTTP APIs for authenticated writes and public reads, plus file operations for upload, download, delete and listing in a WebDAV-style layout. You choose which homeserver holds your files and can switch whenever you like.
PKARR and PKDNS discovery
PKARR turns a public key into an addressable record published to the Mainline DHT, and PKDNS builds self-sovereign domain names on top of it. Because the DHT is distributed across more than 10 million nodes, there is no single authority that can switch off your address or redirect it.
Rust and JavaScript SDKs
The protocol ships a Rust SDK with JavaScript and WASM bindings, so you can build for the web or the desktop with one core library. The SDK handles authentication, storage calls and event stream subscriptions, and an app template bundles a working starting point with both mainnet and local testnet builds.
Pubky Ring key manager
Pubky Ring is the mobile key manager for iOS and Android. It holds your keys on the device and signs you into apps without typing a password, which is how the network keeps a login portable across services. It also handles Passport, which signs users in with a Google account while leaving the key in the browser with an encrypted backup in Google Drive.
A working app lineup
The protocol already has apps built on it. pubky.app is the social demo, Loopky adds spaced-repetition flashcards with social discovery, mypubky turns your identifier and links into a shareable card, and Mapky layers reviews onto OpenStreetMap. The App Template and PubkyLab playground let developers experiment before writing a full app.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Your public key is your identity across the network, so an account survives any one service shutting down.
- Data moves between homeservers without loss, which removes the lock-in people hit on closed platforms.
- No blockchain, so operations run on standard HTTP and stay fast and free of gas fees.
- Open SDKs in Rust, JavaScript and WASM give developers a fast path to a working app.
- The core protocol, SDK, Ring and social demo are production-ready, not just a design document.
Cons
- Key management falls on you. Lose your key and there is no central support line to recover the account.
- Payments and encrypted messaging are not finished. Paykit and Pubky Noise are still marked as work in progress.
- Running your own homeserver takes comfort with Docker and command-line setup, so casual users depend on someone else hosting one.
- The app lineup is young, so the social and utility apps on offer are smaller than what a mainstream platform provides.
Frequently asked questions
Pubky Core is the protocol that lets people own their identity and data on the web. You use it to sign in with a key instead of a password, store files on a homeserver you choose, and build or run apps that read and write that data.
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