Create a Decentralized Identifier

Before creating your DID, be sure to check out the Quickstart guide to ensure you’ve properly imported the Web5 SDK. We also have guides to learn more about DIDs.

Create a DID

const myDid = await Web5.did.create('ion');

When calling create, be sure to pass in a Web5-supported DID method(). create returns a JSON representing your newly created DID, which we’ve stored in myDid.

Here’s an example of what the myDid object will look like:

{
  id: 'did:ion:EiA2ZoP6qQm6rmuibI2LCysFfFpG9_j1fI7GxWmI_vLbFA: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',
  internalId: 'did:ion:EiA2ZoP6qQm6rmuibI2LCysFfFpG9_j1fI7GxWmI_vLbFA',
  didDocument: {
    '@context': 'https://www.w3.org/ns/did/v1',
    id: 'did:ion:EiA2ZoP6qQm6rmuibI2LCysFfFpG9_j1fI7GxWmI_vLbFA: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',
    verificationMethod: [ [Object] ],
    authentication: [ '#dwn' ]
  },
  methodData: [
    {
      operation: 'create',
      content: [Object],
      recovery: [Object],
      update: [Object]
    }
  ],
  keys: [
    {
      id: 'did:ion:EiA2ZoP6qQm6rmuibI2LCysFfFpG9_j1fI7GxWmI_vLbFA: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#dwn',
      type: 'JsonWebKey2020',
      controller: 'did:ion:EiA2ZoP6qQm6rmuibI2LCysFfFpG9_j1fI7GxWmI_vLbFA: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',
      publicKeyJwk: [Object],
      privateKeyJwk: [Object]
    }
  ]
}