Security & your passphrase

What your passphrase actually protects

When you create an identity, Aetheria generates a real cryptographic keypair and encrypts it on disk using a key derived from your passphrase. That keypair is what signs every post you publish, so readers can verify it's genuinely from you. Not even someone with access to your computer's files can use that identity without your passphrase.

Why there's no "forgot password"

A password reset requires someone (a company, a server) to hold a way to recover or override your credentials. Aetheria doesn't have that, on purpose: nobody except you holds anything that could unlock your identity, which is exactly what makes it yours. The tradeoff is real and unavoidable: if you lose your passphrase, that identity can't be recovered by anyone, including us.

Treat it like you would a crypto wallet seed phrase or a safe combination. Write it down, store it somewhere durable, and don't rely on memory alone.

What stays on your machine

Your encrypted identity file and a local cache of your own posts live only on your computer. The Aetheria app talks to a local background process (the "delegate") over a connection that never leaves your machine. Your keys never get sent anywhere except the signed, already-public data your posts are made of.

What's public

Once you publish, your public key and every post you write are visible to anyone on the network. That's how following, discovery, and the Latest feed work. There's no private or paywalled content in Aetheria; everything you publish is public by design.