What is adelos?

Adelos is an open source hardware project that lets you prove you are the same person who used a device before, without revealing who you are. There is no central company or government office involved, no issuer, no registry, and no name attached to the device. It recognizes you because you can produce the correct cryptographic response, not because anyone has looked up your identity. The idea is an alternative to centralized digital identity systems, where a single authority vouches for who you are to everyone else, and can therefore revoke you, track everything you do, and become a single point of failure. Adelos flips this around: the issuer is a small, cheap device you build yourself, and the proof it produces belongs only to you. It proves continuity, meaning it is the same device coming back, while never disclosing who is holding it. Technically, the device issues a one time random value, waits for a fingerprint scan, and then computes a cryptographic response using a secret key burned permanently into the chip in a way software cannot read back out. That response is sent over Bluetooth and used right away, then erased, so the device never gives the same answer twice. The hardware is four parts: an ESP32-C3 chip handling both the Bluetooth connection and the cryptographic calculation, a fingerprint sensor so the proof ties to your body rather than just an object, a battery so it works on its own, and a case for protection. The whole unit costs an estimated four to twelve British pounds and needs no separate security chip. If a device is compromised, the same key that proves continuity can also sign a message declaring itself dead, after which nothing it ever signed again can be trusted. There is no central authority here, only individual users choosing what to believe based on signed statements. As of this writing, the software that configures the ESP32 chip is built and working, the step that permanently burns the security key is specified but deliberately not yet applied since it cannot be undone, the fingerprint sensor is designed in but not yet sourced or assembled, and a full physical prototype has not yet been put together. The project is licensed under AGPL-3.0: anyone can use it freely, but modifications, including network services built on it, must also stay open source.