Welcome to the Open Profile Data Exchange (OPDX) protocol specification!
What is OPDX?
OPDX (Open Profile Data Exchange) is a decentralized protocol for retrieving public profile data (such as avatars) associated with an email address. The protocol allows email providers and self-hosted instances to expose profile data in a standardized way, without relying on a centralized service, like Gravatar.
Features
- 🔓 Open & decentralized
- 🤫 Privacy-focused
- 🌎 Compatible with multiple providers
Design Principles
- Open & Decentralized – Anyone can build and host an OPDX-compatible instance. Which server, framework or language to use is completly in the hands of developers, as long as the instance complies with the OPDX specification.
- Privacy-Conscious – No authentication required. Rate-limiting and caching are optional, but should be considered.
- DNS-Based Discovery – Clients discover OPDX servers using a simple TXT record. There is no need for a central instance or directory of instances.
- Minimal & Lightweight – The protocol mandates simple REST API requests and responses using a standardized JSON format.