# ethr-did-resolver

> Resolve DID documents for Ethereum addresses and public keys

Latest version **14.1.3** (published 2026-09-17) · Apache-2.0 license · 0 weekly downloads

## Install

```sh
npm install ethr-did-resolver
pnpm add ethr-did-resolver
yarn add ethr-did-resolver
bun add ethr-did-resolver
```

## Health

**Score 55/100 (C)** — status: active.

Positive: no vulnerabilities; recently updated; high maintenance score.

Warnings: low downloads; no types; no esm support.

## Facts

| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 14.1.3 |
| Published | 2026-09-17 |
| First published | 2018-04-01 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | Apache-2.0 |
| TypeScript types | none |
| Module format | CommonJS |
| Dependencies | 0 |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| GitHub stars | 239 |
| Author | Pelle Braendgaard |
| Maintainers | simonas-notcat, mirceanis, uport-automation-bot, pelleb, mike.xu |
| Keywords | did:ethr, DID, DID document, PKI, resolver, Verifiable Credential, W3C, ethereum, ethereumAddress, blockchainAccountId, registry, EIP1056, EcdsaSecp256k1RecoveryMethod2020, EcdsaSecp256k1VerificationKey2019, Ed25519VerificationKey2020, X25519KeyAgreementKey2020, Multikey |

## Links

- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/ethr-did-resolver
- Repository: https://github.com/decentralized-identity/ethr-did-resolver
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/ethr-did-resolver

## Alternatives

- [base64url](https://npm.io/package/base64url.md) — 6.1M weekly downloads
- [get-installed-path](https://npm.io/package/get-installed-path.md) — 502.9K weekly downloads
- [@uppy/url](https://npm.io/package/@uppy/url.md) — 185.8K weekly downloads
- [@d3fc/d3fc-shape](https://npm.io/package/@d3fc/d3fc-shape.md) — 16.2K weekly downloads
- [localizer](https://npm.io/package/localizer.md) — 226 weekly downloads

## Recent versions

- 14.1.3 (latest) — 2026-09-17
- 13.1.0-alpha.2 (alpha) — 2026-06-03
- 14.1.2 — 2026-08-09
- 14.1.1 — 2026-08-09
- 14.1.0 — 2026-07-28
- 14.0.1 — 2026-07-24
- 14.0.0 — 2026-07-24
- 13.2.0 — 2026-07-24
- 13.1.0 — 2026-07-01
- 13.0.3 — 2026-06-22
- 13.1.0-alpha.1 — 2026-06-03
- 13.0.0 — 2026-05-18
- 12.0.1 — 2026-05-18
- 12.0.1-alpha.1 — 2026-05-09
- 12.0.0 — 2026-05-08
- … 91 more at https://npm.io/package/ethr-did-resolver/versions

## README

[![npm](https://img.shields.io/npm/dt/ethr-did-resolver.svg)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/ethr-did-resolver)
[![npm](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/ethr-did-resolver.svg)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/ethr-did-resolver)
[![codecov](https://codecov.io/gh/decentralized-identity/ethr-did-resolver/branch/master/graph/badge.svg)](https://codecov.io/gh/decentralized-identity/ethr-did-resolver)

# ethr DID Resolver

This library is intended to use ethereum addresses or secp256k1 publicKeys as fully self-managed
[Decentralized Identifiers](https://w3c.github.io/did-core/#identifier) and wrap them in a
[DID Document](https://w3c.github.io/did-core/#did-document-properties)

It supports the proposed [Decentralized Identifiers](https://w3c.github.io/did-core/#identifier) spec from the
[W3C Credentials Community Group](https://w3c-ccg.github.io).

It requires the `did-resolver` library, which is the primary interface for resolving DIDs.

This DID method relies on the [ethr-did-registry](https://github.com/uport-project/ethr-did-registry).

## DID method

To encode a DID for an Ethereum address on the ethereum mainnet, simply prepend `did:ethr:`

eg:

`did:ethr:0xf3beac30c498d9e26865f34fcaa57dbb935b0d74`

Multi-network DIDs are also supported, if the proper configuration is provided during setup.

For example:
`did:ethr:0x5:0xf3beac30c498d9e26865f34fcaa57dbb935b0d74` gets resolved on the goerli testnet (chainID=0x5), and
represents a distinct identifier than the generic one, with different DID documents and different key rotation history.

## DID Document

The did resolver takes the ethereum address, looks at contract events and builds a DID document based on the ERC1056
Events corresponding to the address. When an identifier is a full `publicKey`, the corresponding `ethereumAddress` is
computed and checked in the same manner.

The minimal DID document for an ethereum address `0xb9c5714089478a327f09197987f16f9e5d936e8a` with no transactions to
the registry looks like this:

```json
{
  "@context": [
    "https://www.w3.org/ns/did/v1",
    "https://w3id.org/security/suites/secp256k1recovery-2020/v2"
  ],
  "id": "did:ethr:0xb9c5714089478a327f09197987f16f9e5d936e8a",
  "verificationMethod": [
    {
      "id": "did:ethr:0xb9c5714089478a327f09197987f16f9e5d936e8a#controller",
      "type": "EcdsaSecp256k1RecoveryMethod2020",
      "controller": "did:ethr:0xb9c5714089478a327f09197987f16f9e5d936e8a",
      "blockchainAccountId": "eip155:1:0xb9c5714089478a327f09197987f16f9e5d936e8a"
    }
  ],
  "authentication": [
    "did:ethr:0xb9c5714089478a327f09197987f16f9e5d936e8a#controller"
  ],
  "assertionMethod": [
    "did:ethr:0xb9c5714089478a327f09197987f16f9e5d936e8a#controller"
  ]
}
```

Note this resolver uses the `EcdsaSecp256k1RecoveryMethod2020` type and an `blockchainAccountId` to represent the
default
`verificationMethod`, `assertionMethod`, and `authentication` entry. Any value from the registry that returns an
ethereum address will be added to the `verificationMethod` array of the DID document with
type `EcdsaSecp256k1RecoveryMethod2020` and an `blockchainAccountId` attribute containing the address.

## Building a DID document

The DID document is not stored as a file, but is built by using read only functions and contract events on
the [ethr-did-registry](https://github.com/uport-project/ethr-did-registry) Ethereum smart contract.

Please see the [spec](https://github.com/decentralized-identity/ethr-did-resolver/blob/master/doc/did-method-spec.md) for
details of how the DID document and corresponding metadata are computed.

## Resolving a DID document

The library presents a `resolve()` function that returns a `Promise` returning the DID document. It is not meant to be
used directly but through the [`did-resolver`](https://github.com/decentralized-identity/did-resolver) aggregator.

You can use the `getResolver(config)` method to produce an entry that can be used with the `Resolver`
constructor:

```javascript
import { Resolver } from 'did-resolver'
import { getResolver } from 'ethr-did-resolver'

const providerConfig = {
// While experimenting, you can set a rpc endpoint to be used by the web3 provider
  rpcUrl: 'http://localhost:7545', 
// You can also set the address for your own ethr-did-registry (ERC1056) contract
  registry: registry.address,
  name: 'development' // this becomes did:ethr:development:0x...
}
// It's recommended to use the multi-network configuration when using this in production
// since that allows you to resolve on multiple public and private networks at the same time.

// getResolver will return an object with a key/value pair of { "ethr": resolver } where resolver is a function used by the generic did resolver.
const ethrDidResolver = getResolver(providerConfig)
const didResolver = new Resolver(ethrDidResolver)

didResolver
  .resolve('did:ethr:development:0xf3beac30c498d9e26865f34fcaa57dbb935b0d74')
  .then((result) => console.dir(result, { depth: 3 }))
```

## Multi-network configuration

In production, you will most likely want the ability to resolve DIDs that are based in different ethereum networks. To
do this, you need a configuration that sets the network name or chain ID (and even the registry address) for each
network. An example configuration for multi-network DID resolving would look like this:

```javascript
const providerConfig = {
  networks: [
    { name: "mainnet", provider: web3.currentProvider },
    { name: "0x5", rpcUrl: "https://goerli.infura.io/v3/<YOUR PROJECT ID>" },
    { name: "rsk:testnet", chainId: "0x1f", rpcUrl: "https://did.testnet.rsk.co:4444" },
    { name: "development", rpcUrl: "http://localhost:7545", registry: "0xdca7ef03e98e0dc2b855be647c39abe984fcf21b" },
    { name: "myprivatenet", chainId: 123456, rpcUrl: "https://my.private.net.json.rpc.url" }
  ]
}

const ethrDidResolver = getResolver(providerConfig)
```

The configuration from above allows you to resolve ethr-did's of the following formats:

- `did:ethr:mainnet:0xabcabc03e98e0dc2b855be647c39abe984193675`
- `did:ethr:0xabcabc03e98e0dc2b855be647c39abe984193675` (defaults to mainnet configuration)
- `did:ethr:0x5:0xabcabc03e98e0dc2b855be647c39abe984193675` (refer to the goerli network by chainID)
- `did:ethr:rsk:testnet:0xabcabc03e98e0dc2b855be647c39abe984193675`
- `did:ethr:0x1f:0xabcabc03e98e0dc2b855be647c39abe984193675` (refer to the rsk:testnet by chainID)
- `did:ethr:development:0xabcabc03e98e0dc2b855be647c39abe984193675`
- `did:ethr:myprivatenet:0xabcabc03e98e0dc2b855be647c39abe984193675`
- `did:ethr:0x1e240:0xabcabc03e98e0dc2b855be647c39abe984193675` (refer to `myprivatenet` by chainID)

For each network you can specify either an `rpcUrl`, a `provider` or a `web3` instance that can be used to access that
particular network. At least one of `name` or `chainId` must be specified per network.

These providers will have to support `eth_call` and `eth_getLogs` to be able to resolve DIDs specific to that network.

You can also override the default registry address by specifying a `registry` attribute per network.

---
_Source: https://npm.io/package/ethr-did-resolver · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._