Verification
Verification is a trust signal: it tells people an account is who it claims to be. It is not an endorsement, it says nothing about follower counts, and it does not vouch for anything a verified account posts. It answers one question: is this really who it says it is?
What verification does
Section titled “What verification does”Once an account is verified, a verified check appears next to its name in mu.social and in other AT Protocol apps that read verification records. In mu.social it shows as a pink check.
Bluesky does not display these verifications at the moment, so do not expect the mark to show up there yet. It appears in the apps that support the open verification records.
What a country verifier confirms
Section titled “What a country verifier confirms”If you run verification for a country (atproto.nl, atproto.be, and so on), confirm one thing:
that the person is located in that country. Nothing more.
Keeping it to location does two jobs:
- It lets people confirm where someone is based without anyone publishing a precise location. “Based in Belgium” is enough; a city or street is not needed.
- It feeds the community statistics. A verified count per country is the most reliable way to measure how many people are active on AT Protocol across Europe.
So a country verifier answers “is this person in this country?” and leaves everything else alone. Local communities are well placed to do this. You often know who is who in your country, or at minimum can reasonably tell that someone lives there, and every verification sharpens the numbers.
Verification is not one-way or permanent. If someone moves away, or turns out not to live where you thought, you can retract it later. And plenty of people live or commute across a border, so verifying someone for more than one country is fine.
Verifying something else
Section titled “Verifying something else”You might want to verify other things: everyone who speaks Spanish, people who work in a particular industry, government accounts, and so on. That is useful, but it does not belong in a country verifier.
Two reasons. A language like Spanish reaches well past one country and past Europe, so attaching it
to atproto.es would make the country signal meaningless. And mixing “in this country” with “works
in tech” or “is a government account” blurs what a verification means.
If you want to verify one of those, start a separate verifier service for it. One verifier, one clear claim.
How verification works for now
Section titled “How verification works for now”For the time being, community verification runs through mu.social. See hello.mu.social/verification for how it works and to get started.
The short version:
- Individuals do not apply directly. Instead, an organization, professional group, or network you belong to becomes a trusted verifier and verifies its members.
- Organizations become verifiers by showing they can confirm their members are who they say they are, usually through domain verification and direct knowledge of the people involved.
- Verification stays free and is based on real-world social proof, not payment.
To start, either encourage an organization you belong to to apply to become a verifier, or ask a group that has already become one to verify your account. If you want your community to verify at any scale, get in touch on the website repository.