Solidus Relay
How this works, explained once
DIDComm mediation explained: how an offline wallet receives messages, what a mediator can and cannot see, and where the metadata goes.
34 articles
- What a DIDComm mediator is, and why an agent needs oneTwo agents want to exchange encrypted messages. Neither is a server.
- Coordinate Mediation 2.0: mediate-request, mediate-grant, keylistCoordinate Mediation answers one question: how does an agent get a mediator to accept mail on its behalf, and how does the mediator learn which addresses to accept?
- The Pickup Protocol 3.0: delivery-request, delivery, messages-receivedMediation gets messages into a queue. Pickup is how they get out.
- The forward message and routing keysThis is the mechanism that lets a sender deliver to a recipient through a mediator without learning anything about the mediator's internals, and without the mediator learning anything about the message.
- DIDComm v2 vs v1Most of the DIDComm material you will find describes v1, and v2 is not compatible with it.
- Out-of-band invitationsAn out-of-band invitation is how a DIDComm conversation starts when the two parties have no prior relationship and no shared state.
- JWE envelopes: authcrypt vs anoncryptDIDComm v2 encrypts messages as JWE, JSON Web Encryption, the same JOSE family as JWT and JWS.
- did:key vs did:solidus for a mediatorThe Solidus mediator identifies itself with a did:key, not a did:solidus.
- Chain-anchored routing resolutionWhen relay needs to deliver to a did:solidus, it does not take your word for where that DID lives.
- Credential-gated mediationMost mediators admit agents with an API key. Relay can admit them on a presented credential instead: the agent proves something about itself, and the mediator decides from that proof.
- Connect an agent to the Solidus mediatorA DIDComm mediator solves one problem: two agents that are never online at the same time still need to exchange messages.
- Reading the operator consoleThe console preview on relay.solidus.network renders sample data, and the page says so.
- Keylist management in practiceA mediation grant says we will carry mail for you. The keylist says for which addresses.
- Queue depth, backpressure, and what happens when an agent stays offlineA mediator's whole purpose is holding messages for someone who is not there.
- Webhooks and delivery logsAn operator needs to know what its mediator is doing without being able to read what it carries.
- What a mediator can and cannot seeA mediator cannot read your messages, and it can still learn a great deal about you.
- Traffic analysis against a mediatorWhat a mediator can and cannot see lists the metadata a mediator necessarily holds.
- Replay and man-in-the-middle at the transport layerA mediator is infrastructure that stands between two parties and handles every message they exchange.
- Herd privacy in a mediator
- Threat model for a hosted mediatorStatus: spec. A threat model exists as a written document; it has not been independently reviewed, and there is no security audit of the code it describes.
- Solidus Relay vs a Credo-TS mediatorThis page is not an argument that you should not use it.
- Solidus Relay vs VeramoThese are not really competitors, and the honest version of this page says so up front.
- Solidus Relay vs the Indicio Proven MediatorIndicio is the most production-ready DIDComm v2 mediator offering we know of.
- Solidus Relay vs the OpenWallet Foundation mediatorThe OpenWallet Foundation's DIDComm Mediator Service is the reference implementation of the thing Solidus Relay is a hosted version of.
- Solidus Relay vs running your own mediatorSometimes you should run your own, and this page is written to help you decide that, not to talk you out of it.
- Solidus Relay vs push notifications and message brokers"We already have a queue" and "we already have push" are the two most reasonable objections to adopting a mediator, and both are sometimes right.
- What routing a message actually costsNo price is quoted on this page, deliberately. Solidus's own live surfaces currently disagree about pricing by a factor of fifty on a different product, that conflict is unresolved, and relay has no…
- Hosted vs self-hosted, the real tradeoffThe choice is usually framed as cost. It is not. It is a trade of operational burden against an observer in your routing path, and the money is a distant third consideration.
- When you do NOT need a mediatorThis page exists to disqualify you, and that is not a rhetorical device.
- Multi-tenancy for an operator
- Relay and Solidus AgentsAn AI agent that acts on your behalf is offline most of the time: it runs, does a thing, and stops.
- Relay and Solidus WalletA wallet is the clearest case for mediation that exists. It lives on a phone, it is closed most of the day, it has no stable inbound endpoint, and it is exactly what someone needs to reach when they…
- Relay, Identity and Verify, credential-gated admission end to endNothing described here has a customer using it.
- Relay's status, stated plainlyOne page, no hedging. Everything here is checkable, and where the answer is unflattering it is still the answer.