Midnight DID Method Traits

This document summarizes how the Midnight DID method aligns with the DID Method Traits maintained by the Decentralized Identity Foundation.

Core Identifier Traits

Trait	Status	Notes
Deterministic / namespaced	✔	did:midnight:{network}:{64-hex} derived from contract address; avoids collisions across networks.
Self-certifying	△	DID value is not derived from controller key; security anchored in on-chain contract + wallet-local controller signatures.
Ledger anchored	✔	All CRUD operations interact with Midnight ledger smart contract.
Method-specific syntax	✔	Defined in Midnight DID Method §2; conforms to RFC3986 and W3C-DID requirements.

CRUD Lifecycle Traits

Trait	Status	Notes
Create	✔	Contract deployment creates DID state.
Read / Resolve	✔	packages/did/src/ledger-to-domain.ts reconstructs DID Document from ledger state.
Update	✔	Individual contract circuits handle adds/updates/removals with controller-signature authorization.
Deactivate	✔	Deactivation operation prevents further updates.
Recover	✔	Dedicated recoveryAuthorityPublicKey authorizes recoverControllerKey to rotate the active controller key. Threshold/social recovery and recovery-authority rotation remain outside this method version.

Verification Method Traits

Trait	Status	Notes
Key rotation / revocation	✔	Add/Update/RemoveVerificationMethod + relation ops.
Key type diversity	△	Restricted to explicit JWK profiles (RFC7517) (OKP/Ed25519/X25519/BLS12381G1/BLS12381G2, EC/Jubjub/P-256/secp256k1). publicKeyMultibase/Multikey is unsupported in this method version.
Multi-controller keys	✖	The contract stores one active controller public key plus a recovery authority public key. Multi-controller or threshold custody remains outside the current method surface.
Relative key IDs	✔	Fragment identifiers supported (#key-1).

Service Endpoint Traits

Trait	Status	Notes
Service entry support	✔	service array with id, type, serviceEndpoint.
Endpoint formats (CID-1.0)	✔	Strings, objects, and arrays; JSON stored on-ledger.
Relative service IDs	✔	Fragment/relative URIs required.
Absolute external IDs	✖	Non-DID absolute URIs disallowed.

Controller / Authorization Traits

Trait	Status	Notes
Single controller	✔	Contract enforces single controller equal to DID.
Multi-controller	✖	Not supported on-chain. Recovery uses a dedicated authority that can only rotate the active controller key and does not act as a second active controller.
Delegated updates	✔	Wallet-local controller signatures authorize updates without revealing the controller secret to proof servers.
On-chain access control	✔	Circuits verify wallet-local controller signatures against controllerPublicKey; recovery verifies a narrow recovery signature against recoveryAuthorityPublicKey.

Operational Traits

Trait	Status	Notes
Batch operations	✖	One circuit call per operation (no batching).
Network portability	✔	Works on undeployed/devnet/testnet/mainnet/preview/preprod.
Privacy guidance	✔	Spec discourages PII on-chain; ZK witness protects updates.
Service discovery	✔	Indexers/resolvers dependent on Midnight network (Midnight DID Method §10).

Status icons: ✔ Supported · △ Partial support / restriction · ✖ Not supported.