Catalog.ID
Private Identity and Verifiable Trust
What is Catalog.ID?
Catalog.ID is a privacy-first digital identity. It lets you prove who you are, share personal details on your own terms, and be recognized for your work, without ever handing your data to a server that can read it.
Catalog.ID is the identity module of Catalog, an integrated suite of applications for creatives and other intellectual-property producers. The suite covers identity (Catalog.ID), payments (Bitcash), mail, chat, a provenance and claims registry (Catalog Provenance Registry / CPR), metadata management, digital rights management, and file storage and delivery. Catalog.ID works across all of these, and it can also be used entirely on its own.
Your identity, and every personal detail attached to it, is encrypted on your own device before it reaches a server. Only you hold the keys. The people who run Catalog.ID cannot read your information, because they never have it in a form they can read.
Your Keys, Your Data
When you create a Catalog.ID, your browser generates a set of cryptographic keys and keeps the private ones on your device. They are never sent to the server. Everything you attach to your identity (your name, email, phone number, address, or any other attribute) is a claim: a piece of information you encrypt locally and control completely.
The server stores only the encrypted version, and it cannot open it. When you want to share a claim, whether with a service or with another person, you do so by delivering a decryption key that is itself encrypted to the recipient. You decide what to share, with whom, and for how long, and you can revoke access at any time.
Because you hold the keys and no one else does, there is a real responsibility that comes with them. If you lose your keys and have no backup, the private information only you could read is gone for good. This is deliberate: a back door that let someone restore your keys would also let them read your data. Catalog.ID gives you tools to export and back up your keys, along with a recovery path to prove your identity and start again if the worst happens.
More Than a Login: a Membership
Most identity systems are only a way to sign in. Catalog.ID is also a membership, and that is what makes it a place you can trust.
Every member accepts the same rules: the same standards for confidentiality and consent, the same respect for intellectual property and attribution, and the same dispute process, with real consequences for doxxing, leaks, and infringement. When two members work together, they do so inside a shared legal and behavioral framework. That is what turns a private identity into a safe environment to share work, ideas, and personal information.
The full terms are set out in the Catalog.ID Membership Agreement.
Verified Claims
A claim can be validated. If you want to prove that an email address, phone number, postal address, or domain really is yours, Catalog.ID can verify it and issue a cryptographic attestation: a signed proof that the claim is genuine. Validation is handled by an isolated verification service that only ever sees a claim when you explicitly ask for it to be checked, and never keeps it afterward.
Once validated, a claim carries proof of authenticity wherever it goes. Others can confirm it is real without you having to expose anything more than you choose.
Log in with Catalog.ID
Catalog.ID works as a privacy-preserving way to sign in to other websites and services. It is built on the same open standard (OpenID Connect) that powers "log in with" buttons across the web, so any site can add it in hours.
The difference is what the site learns about you. By default, a site you sign in to receives only your Catalog.ID username and nothing else. If you choose to share a verified detail (say, that you are over 18, or that you hold a particular address), you disclose only that one thing, backed by cryptographic proof, and nothing you did not select.
Recognition for Your Work
Paired with the Catalog Provenance Registry, Catalog.ID lets you attribute yourself in your own work, and lets others attribute you in theirs, in a way that is cryptographically verifiable and hard to dispute. Your contributions can be recognized and proven, whether you claimed them yourself or someone else acknowledged your role. For creators, that means durable, independent evidence of authorship that holds up over time.
Who Operates Catalog.ID?
Catalog.ID is currently run by its founder, Roberto Bourgonjen, as a private project for his own archive, under the node identifier fndr. There are no shareholders and no advertising. The service is designed to keep its data on several nodes that replicate each other, so that it keeps working if a single node goes offline. Whoever runs a node cannot read your private data, because it is encrypted before it ever reaches one.
Joining Catalog.ID
Membership is for individuals: you must be a natural person, at least 18 years old. Organizations can register a separate Organization Identity, and members can create Agent Identities for the AI systems and automation that act on their behalf, always under a person's control and responsibility.
Registration is free of charge and currently by invitation only, for individuals and organizations alike. If you have received an invitation, create your Catalog.ID at the address below; existing members log in there too:
Use Catalog.ID on Your Desktop
Catalog.ID is available as a module of the Catalog Desktop, the desktop application that hosts all of Catalog's client modules on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Install it from:
You can also use Catalog.ID directly in your browser at fndr.catalog.id.
Learn More
For a full description of how Catalog.ID works, including its identity model, encryption, validation, third-party login, and the network of nodes behind it, read the Catalog.ID Whitepaper.
The rules of membership, what is protected, what is expected, and how disputes are handled, are set out in the Catalog.ID Membership Agreement. Organizations register under the Catalog.ID Organization Identity Agreement. How Catalog.ID and the other Catalog services handle personal data is described in the Privacy Policy.
For support and contact, write to [email protected].
Catalog.ID is the identity module of Catalog. The Catalog.ID namespace and system are the intellectual property of Roberto Bourgonjen.