# New TZIP draft: string signing

**URL:** https://forum.tezosagora.org/t/new-tzip-draft-string-signing/4534
**Category:** TZIP
**Created:** [May 6, 2022, 4:04pm UTC](https://forum.tezosagora.org/t/new-tzip-draft-string-signing/4534 "2022-05-06T16:04:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![fredcy](https://forum.tezosagora.org/user_avatar/forum.tezosagora.org/fredcy/32/17_2.png) [@fredcy](https://forum.tezosagora.org/u/fredcy)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2022, 4:04pm UTC](https://forum.tezosagora.org/t/new-tzip-draft-string-signing/4534/1 "2022-05-06T16:04:16Z")

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We request comments on a new draft TZIP concerning process and interface standards for [signing messages off-chain](https://gitlab.com/tezos/tzip/-/merge_requests/183) with Tezos keys.

This proposed standard documents a “temporary message signing” convention already in use in some Tezos applications.

~~See a [rendered view of the draft proposal as of 2022/05/06](https://gitlab.com/tezos/tzip/-/blob/7fdcd1b7ed7508af3b5e4ec2e07ea013ec2bded3/drafts/current/draft-string-signing.md).~~ [edit: obsolete, see below]

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### Author: ![fredcy](https://forum.tezosagora.org/user_avatar/forum.tezosagora.org/fredcy/32/17_2.png) [@fredcy](https://forum.tezosagora.org/u/fredcy)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2022, 7:10pm UTC](https://forum.tezosagora.org/t/new-tzip-draft-string-signing/4534/2 "2022-05-09T19:10:34Z")

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One suggestion (by @codecrafting) is to also define a format for bundling everything needed to verify the signature for a message, something like this:

```auto
-----BEGIN TEZOS SIGNED MESSAGE-----
%message
-----BEGIN SIGNATURE-----
%publicKey
%signature
-----END TEZOS SIGNED MESSAGE-----

```

Where %message, %publicKey, and %signature are placeholders for the obvious particular values.

This is similar to a [convention used in Bitcoin](https://support.bitcoin.com/en/articles/3542835-address-signing-format).

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### Author: ![fredcy](https://forum.tezosagora.org/user_avatar/forum.tezosagora.org/fredcy/32/17_2.png) [@fredcy](https://forum.tezosagora.org/u/fredcy)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://forum.tezosagora.org/t/new-tzip-draft-string-signing/4534/3 "2022-05-14T18:10:37Z")

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I have updated this draft TZIP to correct the specification of which character codes are allowed in the string values (only 7-bit ASCII, not UTF-8), and to add the message/signature text interchange format mentioned in the prior comment.

~~See the new [rendered draft as of 2022/05/14](https://gitlab.com/tezos/tzip/-/blob/279b384a722261c12bd6be8a6d95efbd1fb85853/drafts/current/draft-string-signing.md).~~

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![fredcy](https://forum.tezosagora.org/user_avatar/forum.tezosagora.org/fredcy/32/17_2.png) [@fredcy](https://forum.tezosagora.org/u/fredcy)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2022, 5:16pm UTC](https://forum.tezosagora.org/t/new-tzip-draft-string-signing/4534/4 "2022-05-18T17:16:15Z")

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The TZIP draft no longer refers to current implementations by name.

See [version 6](https://gitlab.com/tezos/tzip/-/blob/870e008cd12eac09597a224a50b869464455a516/drafts/current/draft-string-signing.md) of the draft.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![fredcy](https://forum.tezosagora.org/user_avatar/forum.tezosagora.org/fredcy/32/17_2.png) [@fredcy](https://forum.tezosagora.org/u/fredcy)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2022, 5:51pm UTC](https://forum.tezosagora.org/t/new-tzip-draft-string-signing/4534/5 "2022-05-21T17:51:54Z")

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[tzSig](https://tzsig.com/) is a simple web app demonstrating use of this proposed standard.