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For issuers

An issuer is an organisation that vouches for someone: a supplier or trade counterparty that has watched the money move, a co-op, a chamber, a microfinance group. As an issuer you create records, sign them with your own key, and hand them to the person the record is about. You also keep a public list of any records you have cancelled, so that anyone can check a record is still valid. The tool does all of this.

You run the tool on your own computer. It holds your signing key, which must stay with you and never goes to us or to anyone else.

Get the tool

Each download is about 22–28 MB, because the program it needs to run is bundled inside so there is nothing else to install. On a slow connection it may take a little while.

Steps

  1. Download the file for your system and unzip it.
  2. Double-click the program inside. The first time, your operating system will warn you that it is from an "unidentified developer". This is because the program is not yet signed, not because anything is wrong. On Windows, click "More info" then "Run anyway"; on macOS, right-click the program, choose "Open", then "Open" again.
  3. A small window opens, and your web browser opens the tool. If the browser does not open on its own, go to the address the window shows you (http://localhost:4173).
  4. Set up your organisation once: the tool generates your signing key, shows you a backup of it, and asks you to confirm you have saved that backup. Save it somewhere safe. There is no password reset and no way to recover a lost key — if you lose it, you lose the ability to sign and to cancel, permanently. Then you declare who you are (your name and an official registration number that a verifier can check against your country's own public register) and set a password that protects the key on this computer.
  5. Create records. For each one you enter who it is about, what you are vouching (repaid a loan, honoured trade credit, member in good standing, and so on), and what you stand to lose if the vouch is false. The tool seals the record and gives you a file to hand to that person.
  6. Cancel a record if you must (fraud found, a genuine error). State a reason; it becomes public and permanent, and it counts against your own record. The tool updates and republishes your cancellation list on its own.

Keep the program running while you are using it. To stop it, close its window.

Common Credo · the issuer tool is AGPL-3.0.