Terms of Service

1. What XityConnect is

XityConnect is the national digital identity service of the Republic of Xity, operated as part of the Republic’s national infrastructure. It issues self-sovereign identities: cryptographic credentials whose private keys are generated and held on each citizen’s own device.

These terms govern your use of the service, including the website, the identity platform, the verification ceremony, the identity card representation, and the associated APIs documented in the developer documentation.

2. Acceptance and development phase

By creating an identity or using any part of the service, you accept these terms. The service operates during a declared development phase: core identity, authentication, verification, and recovery functions are live; certain delivery channels (out-of-band verification codes, authoritative biometric verification) are operator-assisted during this phase. Functions that are not yet live are stated as unavailable in the interface — never presented as completed.

3. Definitions

“Identity” means your on-chain identity record and its derived address. “Key” means the Ed25519 keypair that controls your identity. “PIN” means the secret that decrypts your key on your device. “Ceremony” means the server-verified capture protocol used for identity verification. “Vault” means the integrity-sealed claim storage under your control. “Operator” means the authority operating the service on behalf of the Republic.

4. Key custody is yours — and only yours

The service gives you, and only you, the cryptographic key to your identity. With that control comes responsibility the operator cannot assume: you are solely responsible for your PIN and private key. The operator holds no copy, cannot recover them, and cannot sign on your behalf.

You are responsible for setting up recovery methods before you need them. An identity with no recovery method and a lost key is permanently unreachable — by you and by the operator.

You must safeguard any backup code, device token, or guardian approval you provision. These are bearer secrets: whoever holds them can complete a recovery after the waiting period.

5. Accuracy of declarations

Information you declare — your name, your photograph, your claims — must be truthful and yours to declare. Holder-declared data is marked as such on the identity card and in the record until operator verification confirms it. Declaring another person’s identity, or data you know to be false, is a breach of these terms and may constitute identity fraud under applicable law.

6. Acceptable use

You may not: attempt to complete a recovery for an identity you do not own; interfere with the notification or cancellation window of another person’s recovery; submit captures that misrepresent their origin; grant permissions to addresses you control in order to circumvent scope limits; probe, scan, or attack the service beyond the explicit security-testing engagement the operator may authorise in writing; or use the service for any unlawful purpose.

Initiating a recovery for an address you do not own is not, by itself, a breach — initiation is proofless by design. Completing such a recovery without valid proofs is impossible by design; attempting it through deception is a breach and will be investigated.

7. Security of your device

Your security depends partly on your device. Keep your operating system and browser current. Do not install software that requests access to your browser storage. Sign out on shared devices, and prefer session-only sign-in there. Register device biometrics where available — it adds a hardware-verified layer to sign-in.

8. What verification establishes

The ceremony establishes, with cryptographic evidence: that captures were produced during a live session bound to your identity key; that the evidence was not replayed, substituted, or reordered; and that the declared methods were presented. Client-side liveness and comparison results are recorded as claims.

Assurance levels above holder-declared — operator-granted verification, authoritative biometric matching — are issued only through the operator process. No interface of this service can self-assert them, and any representation elsewhere that claims such levels without an operator record is not a product of this service.

9. The identity card representation

The identity card displayed by this service is a representation of your credential for human reference. Its machine-readable strip encodes real card fields with verifiable check digits. The representation does not itself constitute proof: verification of a Xity identity is performed against the platform, never by inspecting a screen or a screenshot of one.

10. Availability

The service is provided on a best-effort basis during the development phase. The operator may suspend the service for maintenance or security. Sessions and pending verification codes may be invalidated by a restart; on-chain records are not.

11. Fees

Identity services are provided without user fees during this phase. Any future fee schedule will be announced in advance and will not apply retroactively.

12. Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the operator is not liable for loss of access caused by lost PINs, lost keys, cleared browser storage, exhausted recovery proofs, or failure to act on security notifications within the 24-hour recovery window.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud, wilful misconduct, or anything else that cannot be limited under applicable law.

13. Changes to the service and these terms

Material changes to the service or these terms will be announced on this page with at least 14 days’ notice. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

14. Governing law and forum

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Xity where applicable and otherwise by the laws of Singapore. Disputes that cannot be resolved with the operator shall be brought exclusively before the courts of Singapore.

15. Contact

For anything relating to these terms: business@spacexity.org. Quote your address (never your PIN, key, or recovery secrets) and any relevant session or request reference.