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docs/_includes/sign_in.md

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For an application developer, the application flow is similar to the typical client-server flow used by centralized sign in services (e.g., OAuth). However, with Blockstack, the authentication flow happens entirely client-side.

A decentralized application (DApp) and the Blockstack Browser communicate during the authentication flow by passing back and forth two tokens. The requesting application sends the Blockstack Browser an authRequest token. Once a user approves a sign-in, the Blockstack Browser responds to the application with an authResponse token. These tokens are JSON Web Tokens, and they are passed via URL query strings.

When a user chooses to Sign in with Blockstack on a DApp, it calls the redirectToSignIn() method which sends an authRequest to the Blockstack Browser. Blockstack passes the token in via a URL query string in the authRequest parameter:

https://browser.blockstack.org/auth?authRequest=j902120cn829n1jnvoa...

When the Blockstack Browser receives the request, it generates an (authResponse) token to the application using an ephemeral transit key . The ephemeral transit key is just used for the particular instance of the application, in this case, to sign the authRequest. The application stores the ephemeral transit key during the request generation. The public portion of the transit key is passed in the authRequest token. The Blockstack Browser uses the public portion of the key to encrypt an app-private key which is returned via the authResponse.

During sign in, the Blockstack Browser generates the app-private key from the user's identity-address private key and the application's appDomain. The app private key serves three functions:

  • It is used to create the credentials that give an app access to the Gaia storage bucket for that specific app.
  • It is used in the end-to-end encryption of files stored for the app in the user's Gaia storage.
  • It serves as a cryptographic secret that apps can use to perform other cryptographic functions.

Finally, the app private key is deterministic, meaning that for a given user ID and domain name, the same private key is generated each time.