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A digital garden, tended with care

Johnx.co/Research Notes
ResearchAbout

Subscribe to get a short note when I publish something new.

A digital garden, tended with care

Johnx.co/Research Notes
ResearchAbout

Spec · 2021

GeoDIDs

Co-authorHistorical

GeoDIDs wrapped spatial data assets in decentralized identifier documents, inspired by STAC, so they could be referenced and controlled without a central registry.

Astral archive

Purpose

Spatial data assets needed a way to be named, resolved, and controlled without a central registry -- an identity layer for spatial data.

Approach

An early Astral specification wrapping spatial data assets in DID documents, with a linked structure inspired by STAC.

Status

Archived, 2021; groundwork for the Location Protocol.

astraldidipfs

Connections

Related Notes

Astral API

Preview

The Astral API indexes location attestations from the Ethereum Attestation Service across chains and serves them through OGC-compliant REST and GraphQL interfaces backed by PostGIS.

Astral Compute

Preview

Astral Compute evaluates spatial predicates -- distance, containment, intersection -- inside a trusted execution environment and returns cryptographically signed results that a third party can verify.

Astral Docs: Location Proofs

Active

The Astral documentation describes location proofs as verifiable artifacts pairing a claim about the timing and position of an event with corroborating evidence, graded along a certainty spectrum rather than treated as absolute.

Astral Docs: Location Records

Active

The Astral documentation describes location records -- signed, verifiable location data artifacts that add cryptographic attribution and integrity checking to raw geospatial data.

Astral: a spatial extension for the decentralized web

Active

This FOSS4G North America 2025 talk introduces Astral: the Location Protocol for signed spatial records, a modular library of location-proof strategies, and Spatial.sol utilities for smart contracts.

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A digital garden, tended with care