Identity & Profile
In DNA Connect, you create your identity — not a company. It is generated on your own device from your 24-word Recovery Phrase, and no company holds an account — or your keys — for you.
Your name
Every account has a name — a simple, human-readable handle like alice that you register when you set up the app. Your friends add you by this name; nobody needs to exchange long codes or phone numbers. Names are unique: once a name is registered, nobody else can take it.
Pick a name you are happy to keep. Your name is how everyone knows you across messaging, groups, and the Wall.
Your profile
Your profile is what others see when they look you up. You can add:
- A profile picture — pick a photo and crop it in the app
- A short bio, your location, and a website
These are all optional — share as much or as little as you like.
Your wallet addresses
Your profile also carries your wallet addresses (Cellframe, Ethereum, Solana, Tron, BNB Smart Chain). You don't type these in and you can't get them wrong: they are created automatically from your identity and shown read-only. This is what lets a friend send you funds by simply picking your name in their wallet — the app looks up the right address from your profile, no copy-pasting needed.
Your name and profile (bio, avatar, addresses) are public — that is what makes you findable. They are cryptographically signed so nobody can tamper with them or impersonate you, but anyone can look them up. Your contacts and messages are a different story: those are encrypted, for your eyes only.
Your identity lives on the network, not on one device
Your name and profile live on the network, signed by your keys. Your contact list lives there too — encrypted, so only you can open it — and if you turn on message backup, an encrypted copy of your history joins it. Your device holds the keys, which your 24 words can recreate anywhere. That is why a phone can break or get lost without your identity going with it: enter your 24 words on any device and you are back — your name, your profile, your contacts, and (if you enabled backup) your messages.
Logging in elsewhere with QR codes
Services in the CPUNK ecosystem can let you log in using your DNA identity instead of a username and password. When a website shows a login QR code, open the QR scanner in DNA Connect (on your Android phone — the scanner needs a camera), scan it, and approve or reject the request on your device. Your keys never leave the app — you simply confirm "yes, that's me".
Only approve QR logins that you started. If a login request appears that you did not ask for, reject it.
Moving to a new device
Install DNA Connect on the new device, choose restore, and enter your 24 words — your name, profile, and contacts come back from the network, and the app checks for an encrypted message backup (you'll have one if you turned backup on). See Your Recovery Phrase.