Identity & Trust
HID levels, reviews, COL-Points, and verification signals.
Human Identity (HID) is Colabonate's decentralized identity layer. It proves you are a unique real human without revealing your personal data. HID is verified through biometric proof and peer validation. It is the highest trust signal on the platform.
HID verification is one-time — your L3 status persists until revoked.
L0 (Anonymous): no verification, basic features. L1 (Nostr): confirms key ownership via signing. L2 (Peer): other users have vouched for you. L3 (HID): biometric human verification. Higher levels unlock higher transaction limits and better visibility in search.
L0
No verification — basic access
L1
Nostr key confirmed — free to upgrade
L2
Peer vouch — get 3 L2/L3 users to verify you
L3
Biometric HID — complete the HID verification flow
Start at L1 immediately after login — it only takes 10 seconds with a NIP-07 extension.
After a completed transaction, both parties can leave a review. Reviews are public and linked to your identity level. Providers with more positive reviews appear higher in search. You cannot edit or delete reviews after submission.
Complete transaction
The ticket must reach Completed status
Leave review
Rate 1–5 stars and write a short comment
View reviews
See all reviews on any public profile
Detailed reviews (what went well, what could improve) help the whole community.
COL-Points are earned through positive contributions: completing transactions, receiving good reviews, verifying identity, and participating in governance. Points are visible on your profile and influence your reputation score. They cannot be bought or transferred.
COL-Points are updated weekly based on your activity in the past 90 days.
Profile badges indicate identity level (L1/L2/L3), verification status (HID), and community standing (COL-Points tier). The Verified checkmark means the account has passed manual review. Always look for these signals before high-value transactions.
Hover over any badge to see exactly what it guarantees.
When you log in with MetaMask, you sign a fixed message that says "derive my Colabonate Nostr identity". The 65-byte signature is run through HKDF-SHA256 with a fixed salt and your lower-case address as info. The resulting 32 bytes are used as a Nostr (Schnorr) private key. Because the message and salt never change, the same MetaMask seed always produces the same Nostr identity on any device. Colabonate never sees your MetaMask seed or the derived private key.
The derivation is client-side: your browser computes the Nostr key and only the public key is sent to the server.
If you lose access to your MetaMask seed, you cannot recover this Nostr identity — back up your MetaMask recovery phrase.
Web of Trust (WoT) is the idea that reputation spreads through real social relationships. On Nostr, your follows, recommendations, and interactions create a social graph that helps others decide whom to trust. Colabonate does not rely on WoT alone — it complements the social graph with structured identity levels (L0–L3) and escrow, so commerce can happen safely even between people who do not share a direct social circle.
Social graph
Follows and recommendations from people you know
Identity levels
Structured verification that resists fake accounts
Escrow
Cryptographic protection when trust signals are not enough
WoT is great for small, repeated trades within a community; escrow protects high-value trades with strangers.
Colabonate chose structured identity levels over pure WoT to avoid the cold-start problem and coordinated Sybil attacks.
What is Web of Trust?
A Web of Trust is a decentralized reputation system built on social relationships. Instead of a central authority saying "this person is trustworthy", trust is inferred from who vouches for whom. If Alice trusts Bob, and Bob trusts Carol, Alice has an indirect reason to trust Carol. On Nostr this graph is public: follows, mentions, replies, and recommendations all contribute to a social reputation signal.
WoT on Nostr
Nostr has no central identity server, so WoT is especially important. Your pubkey is your identity, and your relationships (follows, relay interactions, zaps, replies) form a public graph. Clients can use this graph to surface content and people that are closer to your trusted circle. Colabonate can read this graph to show providers and buyers that are socially close to you, but it does not use it as the sole gate for sensitive features.
Why Colabonate adds identity levels
Pure WoT has two weaknesses for commerce: the cold-start problem (new users have no trusted connections) and Sybil attacks (a coordinated group can create many mutually-trusting fake accounts). Colabonate solves this with L1–L3 identity levels: L1 proves key ownership, L2 requires in-person verification by two independent peers, and L3 requires a biometric uniqueness proof. These levels give every user a baseline trust signal regardless of their existing social network.
WoT vs Escrow — when each applies
WoT and escrow are complementary layers, not replacements. For small or repeated trades within a community with strong social overlap, WoT alone may be enough — reputation is the enforcement. For larger amounts or trades with strangers, escrow hold invoices provide cryptographic protection. The Arbitration Council is the fallback when WoT and escrow cannot resolve a dispute. Colabonate routes each trade to the right layer based on identity level, amount, and social proximity.