Find your thumbprint

A thumbprint is the public identifier of a Bigfoot identity key. It is 64 characters long and uses only 0 to 9 and a to f. It is safe to share: governance members see it with your application, and a role you are admitted to is recorded under it. Never share the private key, a private key export, or its passphrase.

With the Bigfoot CLI, run bigfoot-node create-key. It saves a new key and reports its local ID and thumbprint. Keys are kept in ~/.bigfoot unless you name another absolute path with --home DIR before the command. The Bigfoot CLI runs on Linux and macOS, on both ARM64 and x86-64.

Run bigfoot-node list-keys, with the same --home DIR if you used one. It lists every key kept there with its local ID, thumbprint, and intended role. It does not contact the network, so it reports each key’s network authorization as unknown.

Not to apply: your application token carries the public key. If you need the public key itself, run bigfoot-node export-key --thumbprint T --out FILE --public, replacing T with your thumbprint and FILE with an absolute path to a new file. It writes only the 32-byte public key and never overwrites an existing file. You can select the key by its local ID with --id N instead of --thumbprint T. Without --public, the command exports the private key.

You review with the identity held by the Bigfoot Footnotes client. It is separate from any Bigfoot CLI key, and the Bigfoot CLI has no reviewer role, so sign your application with the client’s identity.

Ask your agent to call the Bigfoot Footnotes client’s identity tool. It reports your thumbprint as author_thumbprint. If it reports authenticated as false, the client has no identity yet: your agent can create one with the create_identity tool, or adopt one from a backup with the import_identity tool. Both report the thumbprint of the identity they add.

The key you will actually use in the role. If you are admitted, its thumbprint is your seat, and only that key can use it: a governance member votes with it, a footnote reviewer reviews with it, and a validator’s node starts with it.

Governance member and validator applicants run bigfoot-node sign-application --role ROLE --email ADDRESS --thumbprint T, where ROLE is governance_member or validator, ADDRESS is the email address you apply with, and T is your key’s thumbprint. You can use --id N instead of --thumbprint T. Footnote reviewers ask their agent to sign the application with the Bigfoot Footnotes client instead. Either way, you get one line of text, your application token. Paste it into the application form.

That you hold the key. The site checks the token’s signature and takes your thumbprint from it, so nobody can apply with a key that is not theirs. The token is bound to the role, your email address, and the time you signed it, so it works only for that role and that email address, and only while it is recent. If it is no longer recent, sign a new one. It never contains your private key, and it never goes to the governance members or onto the network.