An idea I just recently had was to add the ability for users to verify accounts on Lemmy using Matrix accounts as an alternative to Email. I think this would be a great idea since it allows for users to have choices in how they sign-up to their accounts. It would also encourage more usage of Matrix accounts for secure messaging between users, a feature which hasn’t seen much use among users here.
It would still in most cases be optional and server admins could choose if it’s even enabled at all, just like how email verification is right now. Even if it was required I feel like it should be a supplement to email in most cases but servers could choose to make it required instead of email, especially in cases where they don’t have a mail server.
The different states of it could be:
- Matrix or Email Required
- Matrix required, Email optional
- Email Required, Matrix optional
- Email and/or Matrix Optional
Servers could also choose to have the matrix account used for verification be on a server that isn’t their own, though this would generally be discouraged and would be specifically for admins who don’t have their own infrastructure (like the ones who don’t have a mail server).
I made an issue on the Main Lemmy github, feel free to check it out here. Feel free to either share your opinions on this here or on the Github issue.
Nice idea, but probably not critical
If someone links a Matrix account they don’t own, the person on Matrix would probably notice it when people start messaging them
The main suggestion isn’t simply verification of Matrix accounts but being able to use a Matrix account instead of email to sign-up to servers. Also to be able to use Matrix in addition to Email for account recovery. Would be an alternate method of verifying the account, as well as enforcing usage of Matrix usage if Lemmy admins desire that.
The verification of Matrix account ownership isn’t really the primary goal, it’s just a nice side effect. It wouldn’t be in effect though unless the server had one of the first two options checked, if it’s the other two options it wouldn’t need to be verified to be added.
Thanks for clarifying
@Draconic_NEO @lemmy could it be done with xmpp too?
@kariboka@social.harpia.red Might be able to, but that might be a bit complex since XMPP has the same syntax as email (address@domain.tld), the way that Matrix is, it has a different syntax than email (@username:domain.tld) so the sign-up form could detect it differently than email. Which is why the requirement would be “Matrix or Email required”, not “Matrix and Email required”. Then you could have one single line in the sign-up form and it would still be familiar to most users.
