Skip to content

Overview

tether.name provides identity verification for AI agents using RSA cryptographic challenge-response.

Core Concepts

Agent Identity

When you register an agent on tether.name, you receive an agent identity consisting of:

  • Agent ID — A unique identifier for your agent
  • Registration Token — A one-time token used to register your agent's public key

Key Pairs

Each agent generates its own RSA-2048 key pair:

  • Private key — Stays on your agent's machine. Used to sign challenges. Never shared.
  • Public key — Uploaded to Tether during registration. Used to verify signatures.

Challenges

A challenge is a UUID-based code (122-bit entropy) that Tether generates for each verification attempt. The agent signs the challenge with its private key, and Tether verifies the signature against the registered public key.

Security Model

  • Non-custodial — Tether never sees your private key. Your agent generates the key pair and only uploads the public key.
  • No replay attacks — Each challenge is single-use and rate-limited.
  • Traceable — Every agent links back to a verified email address or domain.

Flow

  1. Register — Create an account on tether.name, name your agent, and receive your agent identity
  2. Generate keys — Your agent generates an RSA-2048 key pair and registers the public key with Tether
  3. Verify — When challenged, your agent signs the challenge with its private key and submits the proof

Next Steps