BetterSign™
The old web of trust never happened because keys break the links between people. BetterSign uses stable names that heal themselves, so trust accumulates instead of shattering.
Pubkey links are binary valid/invalid and never restorable. VLAD links map back to the current head, so a stale pubkey resolves to its successor — the property that lets THE network accrete.
A stable name on the outside, freely changeable keys on the inside.
The picture
Instead of hand-delivering keys, you publish the change once to VLADemlia — a shared network address book. Each follower pulls your latest verified state and checks it themselves. VLADemlia only helps peers find each other; it never gets to decide what is true.
VLADemlia is a Kademlia-style DHT mapping a VLAD to its current head CID. It provides discovery only; validity is determined by replaying the provenance log, not by trusting the DHT.
What it fixes
How it works
You add the new key as a signed page in your logbook
You announce the update to VLADemlia, the network address book
Anyone following your VLAD looks you up and pulls the change
Each follower verifies it on their own, so the network is never trusted
They switch to your new key automatically, with nothing hand-delivered
The building blocks
A VLAD remains stable while its keys and protected metadata rotate.
Every state transition is hash-linked and authorized by the previous log state.
VLADemlia helps peers locate current records without becoming the trust root.
Key changes become signed updates that followers can verify and apply.
The jargon, translated
Questions
No. Point your tools at a VLAD and BetterSign keeps the keys current for you — SSH that doesn't break when keys rotate, TLS that renews itself, API tokens you can rotate freely.
Recovery is built in. A stronger, better-protected backup key can fix things if a normal key is lost or stolen — no out-of-band scramble.
The longer a single key stays in use, the more chances a copy ends up somewhere it shouldn't. Rotating retires old risk — like changing the locks now and then.
No. A VLAD is owned by you and no one else, proven by math anyone can check, and still verifiable years later — even offline.
Point your tools at a VLAD and BetterSign keeps the keys current for you.