DeepKey

What is DeepKey and what is it for?

DeepKey is the Holo-Host repository for DeepKey, a core Holochain app that manages the cryptographic keys identifying devices and agents, so a key can be registered, replaced or revoked instead of simply lost. Other Holochain apps rely on it to answer one question: was this key valid at this moment?

DeepKey is the Holo-Host repository for DeepKey, described in its own README as a core application for key management in Holochain. The Holochain organisation's DeepKey documentation records the intent behind it: keys belonging to conductors and applications, gathered into a "keyset" that one person controls, aiming to do for a distributed network what centralised services such as Keybase do for hosted accounts.

Holochain gives each installed app its own keypair — the public half is your address in that app, and the private half signs what you do there. When a device is lost or a key is compromised, the difficult part is knowing which keys still count. DeepKey keeps that record. A keyset groups the keys under one person's control, with change rules that set how many signatures are needed to replace or revoke one, and other apps can ask it whether a key was valid at a particular time.

A documented example is replacing a key: DeepKey returns the next derivation details for the key, the signatures required by that keyset's change rules are collected to revoke the existing registration, and the new key is committed as its replacement — keeping the same app index with an incremented key index. The maintainer's design notes, "Everything you need to know about DeepKey", and the Holochain organisation's DeepKey documentation describe the model in more detail.

From 5 public sources, checked 23 September 2026.