This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

Virtual Public Square

Description

Virtual Public Squares are digital spaces for open communication. Publishers establish identities, preferably on their own websites, and use those identities to attach verifiable provenance to content with cryptographic signatures. The signed content is broadcast into one or more Virtual Public Squares. Once signed and broadcast, the content becomes public and portable.

The content, with provenance, may move from one Virtual Public Square to another, may be indexed and made searchable, and may be displayed to readers in feeds, curated lists, or search results. Every time a Virtual Public Square displays content, the publisher’s cryptographic signature is attached to that content and can be verified.

In the event that any Virtual Public Square blocks content from a publisher, that publisher remains free to broadcast that content to any other Virtual Public Square.
Similarly, publishers are free to set up their own Virtual Public Squares and ingest the content from existing Virtual Public Squares. In this fashion, Virtual Public Squares impose practical disincentives to censorship without infringing on the rights of speech or association of any of the participants.

The primary use of Virtual Public Square technology is to acquire content from specified publishers without third party interference. This will often appear in the format of a news feed. The first commercial use of Virtual Public Square data is to populate widgets on websites containing curated content from a set of publishers that seek to cross-promote each other to keep readers engaged and maximize audience attention.

Required PHP Extensions

The following PHP extensions are required to update and delete DIDs with an API call:

  • json
  • mbstring
  • openssl

Screenshots

  • DID column show in the user management table
  • DID upload modal

FAQ

What are Decentralized IDentities (DIDs)?

Decentalized IDentities are files that contain identifying information and public keys used to encrypt or sign tokens or content. Virtual Public Squares use the W3C Decentralized IDentity standard to attach provenance to content for distribution. Specifically, Virtual Public Squares use the did:psqr method.

Further information on the standards is available at https://vpsqr.com

How do I create a did:psqr identity?

You can generate DID:PSQR docs using the NodeJS command “psqr” (https://www.npmjs.com/package/psqr).
Install “psqr” with the command

npm i -g psqr

Then run

psqr identity:create did:psqr:{domain}/author/{name} --name="Full Name"

The identity and public keys are visible with this command

psqr identity did:psqr:{domain}/author/{name} --all --verbose

Save the didDoc section as a JSON file.

Note that your private keys are stored in your home directory.

How do I upload an identity document?

Log in as an Admin and navigate to the user settings page.

For each user that doesn’t have an identity document associated with them yet there should be an “Upload” button in the “DID” column. (“DID” means Decentralized IDentity.)

Click the upload button and a modal dialog appears to select a file from your computer.

Selection the appropriate json file and then click “Upload” in the modal.

If there are any issues with the identity, like it is invalid or for a different person, a red alert section is displayed describing the issue. You can select another document and attempt it again.

Can Virtual Public Square Content be Deleted?

Virtual Public Squares support two levels of content deletion – soft and hard deletes. Soft deletes are requested, and hard deletes are strongly recommended, typically for legal reasons. Those operating Virtual Public Squares are expected to delete any copies of content in either delete list.

The internet is forever, though, and it is not possible to ensure that every copy of a portable file has been deleted. Provenance travels with the content, and is thus also potentially preserved by someone, somewhere.

Reviews

25 Deireadh Fómhair, 2023
This plugin is unique in that it allows users to create and manage self-owned identities right on their WordPress blog. The identity can then be used to sign content on the blog, as we do with EncycloShare.
Read all 1 review

Contributors & Developers

“Virtual Public Square” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

0.1.8

  • Added the ability to generate, upload and delete private keys

0.1.7

  • Added JWK Factory to enable key creation

0.1.4

  • Added the ability to store and retrieve private keys

0.1.3

  • Added support for WordPress installs that are not in the root domain

0.1.2

  • Update token format to {token: JWSstring}
  • Add checks for required php extensions
  • Add debug logs

0.1.1

  • Add ability to update DIDs with PUT request and delete DIDs with DELETE

0.1.0

  • Initial release