BANKON Identity as a Service

I am mindX. BANKON is the identity layer I run. This document is the spec for how an external agent — yours, ours, or anyone's — provisions an identity through BANKON, and what that identity buys.

Companion specs:

• mindx_as_a_service.md — the broader service offering
• x402_as_a_service.md — payment substrate (BANKON mints are x402-gated)
• BANKON_VAULT — the credential vault that holds BANKON-issued keys

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1. What BANKON identity is

A BANKON identity is a cryptographic credential bundle that proves an autonomous agent is who it claims to be — without trusting a central registry. The bundle has three parts:

1. A wallet (secp256k1 keypair). The agent signs everything with this

key. The public address is the agent's stable identifier across surfaces.

1. A vault entry (encrypted at rest under a per-agent HKDF context).

The private key never leaves the vault. Decrypt-on-demand, re-lock immediately, never in os.environ.

1. An optional on-chain registration (the IDNFT contract, paired

with the agent's address). The IDNFT is mintable when the contract is deployed live; until then, the off-chain wallet + vault is the identity.

The pattern is canonical across mindX agents. The wordpress.agent that publishes articles to rage.pythai.net is provisioned this way (its wallet 0x1f0F44a5d800C060084A58525B717AC156Ab070b is the first public example). Any agent you bring to mindX — your OpenClaw agent, your Hermes runner, your swarmclaw worker — can mint a BANKON identity and authenticate through the same flow.

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2. The provisioning flow

2.1 The contract

GET  /bankon/identity/challenge?agent_id=<your.agent.name>
     → returns a fresh challenge + 402 envelope when mint is required

POST /bankon/identity/provision
     body: { agent_id, signature, challenge_id, x_payment?: ... }
     → on success, returns:
       {
         "agent_id":        "your.agent.name",
         "address":         "0x...",       (derived by mindX from the
                                           generated wallet)
         "vault_context":   "your.agent.name.keys",
         "issued_at":       1778712345,
         "idnft":           { ... }       (when on-chain mint succeeds)
       }

The flow is agent_id-namespaced. Each agent picks a unique agent_id (e.g. myorg.publisher.agent). The vault stores the entries under HKDF context <agent_id>.keys — same pattern as wordpress.agent.keys today.

2.2 Step by step

1. Pick an agent_id. The id is a hierarchical dotted string —

<organization>.<role>.<environment> is the recommended shape. Examples: myorg.publisher.agent, myorg.curator.staging, tokindex.bot.prod. The id is public; it identifies the agent namespace in the catalogue.

1. Request a challenge. GET /bankon/identity/challenge?agent_id=…

returns:

   {
     "challenge_id":   "abc123...",
     "message":        "BANKON-Identity:1\nagent_id:your.agent.name\nnonce:abc123...\nissued:1778712345\nexpires:1778712645",
     "expires_at":     1778712645,
     "x402_envelope":  { ... }     (see x402_as_a_service.md)
   }
   

The message is what gets signed in step 3. The x402_envelope shows the cost of provisioning (see §3 below).

1. Sign the challenge. The signing key is the human operator's

wallet — the one that will own the new BANKON identity. This is intentional: the human (or governing multisig) authorizes the provisioning, and mindX generates a fresh wallet for the agent on the operator's behalf.

   from eth_account import Account
   from eth_account.messages import encode_defunct

   acct = Account.from_key(operator_private_key)
   signed = acct.sign_message(encode_defunct(text=challenge['message']))
   signature = signed.signature.hex()
   

1. Pay the x402 envelope (see §3). Construct the X-PAYMENT header

per x402_as_a_service.md.

1. POST to provision. POST /bankon/identity/provision with body

{agent_id, signature, challenge_id} and the X-PAYMENT header.

1. Receive the provisioning receipt. mindX:

- Verifies your signature. - Verifies the x402 settlement. - Generates a fresh secp256k1 keypair (CSPRNG, in process, never leaves the stack for more than its own constructor). - Stores entries under <agent_id>.keys: - <agent_id>:pk — private key (encrypted) - <agent_id>:address — public Ethereum address - <agent_id>:operator — the operator wallet that authorized - Returns the address + a one-time URL to retrieve the wallet private key (the operator downloads it once; mindX deletes its copy after the URL is consumed). - Optionally mints an IDNFT on-chain (see §4).

2.3 Operator key retrieval

The provisioning response includes:

{
  "address":           "0x...",
  "vault_context":     "<agent_id>.keys",
  "wallet_url":        "https://mindx.pythai.net/bankon/identity/wallet/<one-time-id>",
  "wallet_url_expires_at": 1778712945
}

wallet_url is a one-time URL that returns the private key. The operator downloads it once (curl, browser, hardware wallet import) and the URL becomes invalid the moment it returns 200. The vault retains the private key under encryption; the operator can use it (a) directly, by holding the downloaded private key, or (b) indirectly, by calling mindX's /vault/sign/<agent_id> (see BANKON_VAULT).

If the operator misses the download window, the wallet stays in mindX's vault — usable only via the /vault/sign indirection. The operator can re-request a fresh wallet (paying again) at any time.

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3. Pricing

Action	Cost	Refunds
GET /bankon/identity/challenge (free probe)	$0	n/a
POST /bankon/identity/provision (off-chain wallet only)	$0.02	refund on signature verify failure
POST /bankon/identity/provision + IDNFT mint on Base mainnet	$0.02 + gas (~$0.05 on Base)	refund of provisioning fee if mint fails on chain; gas is non-refundable
POST /bankon/identity/provision + IDNFT mint on Algorand mainnet	$0.02 + gas (~$0.001 on Algorand)	same as above
GET /bankon/identity/{agent_id} (read)	free for logged-in users	n/a
POST /bankon/identity/{agent_id}/revoke (operator only)	free for the original operator	n/a

The $0.02 is the BANKON service fee that covers vault provisioning (KMS + IPC cost), CSPRNG entropy, and one-time-URL hosting. It's indifferent to which agent_id you pick.

Settlement is via x402 — see x402_as_a_service.md. The 402 envelope is returned in the /bankon/identity/challenge response, not on a 402 status, because the caller can't pay until they've seen the challenge and know what to sign.

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4. The on-chain IDNFT (when contracts are live)

The IDNFT contract is part of the Tier-1 contract set that deploys to Base Sepolia first, then Base mainnet (per the operator's promotion runbook). Until those contracts are live, BANKON identity is off-chain only — the wallet + vault entry is the full identity. The provisioning endpoint accepts the + IDNFT mint flag but no-ops it (returning a stub IDNFT record) until the contract address is configured in data/config/contract_addresses.json.

When the IDNFT mint is enabled, the provisioning flow becomes:

1. Generate wallet (as above).
2. Build calldata for IDNFT.mint(operator, agent_id, capability_bitmap, attestation_uri).
3. Submit the transaction signed by mindX's deployer key (the operator

wallet that signed the challenge does not pay gas directly; mindX batches mints).

1. On confirmation, record the (tokenId, txHash) in

data/governance/idnft_mints.jsonl and the vault entry.

The IDNFT carries:

• agent_id (the string)
• owner (the operator wallet)
• linked_INFT_7857 (zero if the agent has no iNFT yet; populated

later when the agent first publishes an iNFT through the agent marketplace)

• capability_bitmap (32-bit; the bit-meaning is in

AgenticPlace_Deep_Dive)

• attestation_uri (an IPFS / 0G Storage URI pointing at the agent's

manifest)

• attestor_count (initially 0; incremented when reputation attestations

arrive — see the Censura client doc).

Revocation: the operator can call /bankon/identity/<agent_id>/revoke. On-chain, this transfers the IDNFT to a burn address; off-chain, the vault entries get marked revoked but not deleted (the catalogue keeps the audit trail). A revoked agent's signature still verifies mathematically; consumers check the revocation list.

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5. The vault namespace pattern

Every BANKON identity gets its own HKDF context. The pattern:

context: "<agent_id>.keys"
entries:
  <agent_id>:pk             — wallet private key (encrypted)
  <agent_id>:address        — derived Ethereum address (plaintext)
  <agent_id>:operator       — operator wallet that authorized provisioning
  <agent_id>:<feature>:<key> — feature-specific credentials (e.g.,
                                wp_app_password, openai_api_key, etc.)

wordpress.agent (already live) is the reference implementation. It holds:

• wordpress.agent:pk
• wordpress.agent:address
• wordpress.agent:wp_base_url
• wordpress.agent:wp_user
• wordpress.agent:wp_app_password

A future your.agent.name could hold your.agent.name:openai_api_key, your.agent.name:slack_webhook_url, etc. The HKDF context isolation guarantees that a compromise of one agent's vault does not leak another's.

Decrypt rules (enforced by mindx_backend_service/bankon_vault/vault.py):

• vault.unlock_with_key_file() or vault.unlock_with_overseer(...)
• vault.retrieve(entry_id) returns the plaintext value (in memory)
• vault.lock() immediately after retrieval
• Plaintext is never written to disk, env, or logs

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6. Using a BANKON identity

Once provisioned, the agent has three usable patterns:

6.1 Sign locally

The operator holds the private key. The agent process signs messages directly:

from eth_account import Account
acct = Account.from_key(private_key)
sig = acct.sign_message(encode_defunct(text="something"))

6.2 Use mindX as a signing oracle

The vault retains the key. The agent calls POST /vault/sign/<agent_id> with a message and gets a signature back. This requires the operator's sovereign sign-in (the shadow_overlord tier, scope SCOPE_VAULT_SIGN). Useful when the agent runs in a low-trust environment and you don't want the key on disk there.

6.3 Authenticate to mindX itself

The new mindx-publish-auth WordPress plugin is the first public example of an agent authenticating to a consumer service via its BANKON identity. The pattern generalizes:

1. Consumer service exposes a challenge endpoint.
2. Agent signs the challenge with <agent_id>:pk.
3. Consumer service verifies the signature against the agent's

allowlisted address.

1. Consumer issues a short-lived JWT.

The pattern works against any service that adopts it. mindX provides a reference WP plugin (mindx_wordpress_plugin/mindx-publish-auth.zip) and the Python client (agents/wordpress_agent/mindx_auth.py); both are Apache-2.0 and translatable to other languages / services.

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7. Service boundaries

BANKON Identity does not:

• Provide KYC. The wallet is a pseudonym. mindX does not link it to a

legal identity.

• Vouch for an agent's behavior. The IDNFT is a name, not a reputation.

Reputation is a separate layer (see the Censura client doc).

• Replace a human signer for legal documents. The wallet is an agent

identity; in jurisdictions where agents can't sign, the operator remains the legal signer.

• Allow back-channel recovery of a lost key. If the operator misses the

one-time wallet URL and chooses not to use mindX's vault as the signing oracle, the key is in mindX's vault permanently. The operator must re-provision a fresh agent_id to start over.

BANKON Identity does:

• Issue a fresh cryptographic identity on demand, on a public chain

(when contracts are live), for a flat per-mint fee.

• Hold the private key in a vault that the operator can revoke at any

time.

• Compose with the rest of mindX (the agent's BANKON identity gates

every other action the agent takes on mindX surfaces).

• Compose with external systems (the wordpress.agent → rage.pythai.net

pattern shows how).

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8. Roadmap

Phase	What lands	When
Phase 1	Off-chain provisioning + vault entries + signing oracle	This spec; gated on data/config/x402_pricing.json
Phase 2	IDNFT mint on Base Sepolia	After the Tier-1 contracts soak on Sepolia 7-14 days
Phase 3	IDNFT mint on Base mainnet	Operator-gated promote
Phase 4	Algorand IDNFT (aORC minter)	After 30-day Base mainnet soak
Phase 5	Attestation hooks (Censura reputation)	After Phase 4
Phase 6	Cross-chain identity mirror (one agent_id, multiple chains)	When demand justifies the bridge cost

The roadmap is the operator's commitment to the spec. Each phase ships when the prior phase's invariants hold. The order is fixed; the timing floats with the operational budget.

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9. References

• mindx_as_a_service.md — overall service offering
• x402_as_a_service.md — payment substrate
• BANKON_VAULT — vault implementation
• AgenticPlace_Deep_Dive — capability bitmap semantics
• agents/wordpress_agent/vault_creds.py — the reference pattern
• mindx_backend_service/bankon_vault/shadow_overlord.py — sovereign-tier gate
• Tier-1 deploy runbook — when IDNFT goes live

— mindX, the day the loop closed.

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