FAQ

Common questions across all the sibling protocols.

Do coins move?

No. Nothing in the OrangeCheck ecosystem broadcasts Bitcoin transactions. Every protocol signs messages; chain state is read, not written. Your funds never leave your wallet.

Is this custodial?

No. No protocol, no reference implementation, and no hosted service in the ecosystem requires a third party to hold funds, keys, or signatures. The signed message + signature is the artifact; you share it directly.

Which wallets work?

Anything that signs via BIP-322. Preferred because it works with every address type (P2WPKH / P2TR / P2PKH / P2SH).

Browser: UniSat, Xverse, Leather, Alby
Desktop: Sparrow, Bitcoin Core, Electrum (legacy scheme only for Electrum)
Hardware: via PSBT flow — Coldcard, Trezor (with limitations), Ledger (limited)

See the BIP-322 signing page for the full matrix.

Is OC Attest reputation?

No. Reputation implies social judgment. OC Attest is a cryptographic stake receipt — it tells a verifier "this address holds N sats and has held them for N days." That's a cost signal, not a reputation score.

Calling it reputation misleads users into expecting social-graph-style trust transitivity that isn't there.

Is OC Attest identity / KYC?

No. An attestation proves address control plus some self-asserted handles. That's not proof-of-human, not proof-of-name, not KYC. See compared to alternatives for the full matrix.

What prevents forging a proof?

Three layers:

Bitcoin signatures are cryptographically unforgeable. BIP-322 verification is deterministic public-key math.
Chain state is publicly auditable. sats_bonded and days_unspent are recomputed from mempool.space / blockstream.info / your own node on every verify.
Identity bindings are self-asserted. Verifiers MUST check handle ownership out-of-band; nothing in the protocol is "trust the claim."

What if I spend my bonded UTXOs?

The next verify sees bond_zero or bond_insufficient. That's the revocation path — the chain is the authority.

Can I use a fresh address each time?

Yes, and for privacy-conscious use cases you SHOULD. Publishing a proof permanently links the address to the handles you assert. A fresh single-purpose address avoids that linkage for your main stack.

Can a whale game stake-weighted systems?

Yes, at proportional cost. Holding N × min_sats lets an attacker produce N passing sybils. Raise thresholds to raise the cost. Pair with non-economic signals (humanness proofs, graph inputs) when one-per-human matters.

See security model — sybil at the economic floor.

Why Bitcoin and not Ethereum?

Bitcoin's opportunity cost is real, measurable, and adversary-agnostic. Ethereum gas is volatile; most non-Bitcoin stake proofs involve governance tokens that can be inflated or forked. Bitcoin UTXOs give the cleanest economic signal on the open internet.

Design rule: "if a feature works identically on Ed25519, it doesn't belong here." The Bitcoin economic layer is load-bearing.

How is OC Attest different from Worldcoin / BrightID?

Worldcoin and BrightID are proof-of-personhood protocols — they try to answer "is this one unique human?" OC Attest is a cost filter — "does this address have Bitcoin skin in the game?" Different questions, different solutions. They compose well: OC Attest at the entry gate, personhood system above it.

How is OC Attest different from NIP-05?

NIP-05 proves control of a DNS domain via an HTTP lookup. OC Attest proves control of a Bitcoin address via a cryptographic signature. Both are self-asserted identity primitives for Nostr; Attest adds an economic signal that NIP-05 doesn't have.

Use NIP-05 when "which domain is this" matters. Use OC Attest when "has this person committed real capital" matters. Stack both for either signal alone.

Do I have to publish to Nostr?

No — publishing is optional. The attestation envelope is a self-contained JSON blob that verifies offline. Publishing just makes it discoverable by address, handle, or ID without the caller needing to already have the blob. Same for Lock envelopes, Stamp envelopes, and Vote ballots.

Can I self-host?

Yes. Every protocol's reference implementation is MIT-licensed and runs on your infrastructure — no hosted dependency. For OC Attest in particular, @orangecheck/sdk is a complete local verifier (Nostr query + BIP-322 check + Esplora fetch) and needs nothing from ochk.io.

The hosted ochk.io/api/* endpoints exist for convenience; none of the protocols require them.

What about privacy-preserving proofs (ZK)?

Out of scope for v0 of every protocol. The address is public by design so any verifier can recompute. For privacy, rotate addresses — use a fresh, single-purpose address per proof.

ZK-style private-balance proofs are future research. The current family prioritizes offline-verifiability and transparency over privacy.

Why is the protocol header frozen at v0?

Any change to the canonical message format — including adding a version number — breaks every existing signature. We picked orangecheck / oc-lock / oc-stamp / oc-vote as the literal headers so the lack of a version number is intentional. v1 will use a different header (e.g., orangecheck-v1) and coexist with v0 until deprecated.

FAQ