Connections

EWP defines a synchronous handshake protocol for establishing and terminating follow relationships.

The Follow Handshake

Follower                                    Followee
   │                                           │
   │──── POST /ewp/connections ───────────────►│
   │     { typedData, signature }              │
   │                                           │ 1. Verify signature
   │                                           │ 2. Verify followeeUrl identity
   │                                           │ 3. Verify followerUrl identity
   │                                           │ 4. Persist connection record
   │◄─── 201 Created ─────────────────────────│
   │                                           │
   │  (Follower records local state            │
   │   on receipt of 201)                      │

The follower creates its own local record upon receiving 201. No callback to the follower's node is required.

Message Types

CreateConnection

Signed by the follower to initiate a follow:

{
  "followerAddress": "0x...",
  "followeeAddress": "0x...",
  "followeeUrl": "https://bob.example.com",
  "followerUrl": "https://alice.example.com",
  "timestamp": 1735000000
}

DestroyConnection

Signed by either party to terminate:

{
  "followerAddress": "0x...",
  "followeeAddress": "0x...",
  "timestamp": 1735000000
}

The receiver determines the operation by matching the recovered signer:

Signer recovered as	Operation	Receiver removes
followerAddress	Unfollow	Followee removes its connection record
followeeAddress	RemoveFollower	Follower removes its connection record

If the recovered signer matches neither address, the request MUST be rejected with INVALID_SIGNATURE.

Endpoints

Method	Path	Auth
POST	/ewp/connections	EIP-712 (CreateConnection)
DELETE	/ewp/connections	EIP-712 (DestroyConnection)

HTTP DELETE with Body

DELETE /ewp/connections uses a JSON request body. Per RFC 9110, DELETE body semantics are not universally defined. EWP protocol traffic is node-to-node HTTPS; implementations MUST NOT route /ewp/ endpoints through intermediaries that strip request bodies.

Verification Rules

CreateConnection

1. Signature must be valid and recover to followerAddress
2. Timestamp must be within ±1 hour of current time
3. followeeUrl must resolve and return matching followeeAddress
4. followerUrl must resolve and return matching followerAddress

DestroyConnection

1. Signature must be valid and recover to followerAddress OR followeeAddress
2. Timestamp must be within ±1 hour of current time
3. Connection must exist

Connection Staleness Protection

DestroyConnection requests are subject to a ±1-hour timestamp window. Additionally, if the receiver holds a connection record whose createdAt is strictly greater than message.timestamp, the receiver MUST reject the request with 409 STALE_REQUEST.

This prevents a delayed or replayed termination message from destroying a connection that was re-established after the original termination was signed.

Follower URL Verification

CreateConnection requires the followee to verify that followerUrl belongs to followerAddress. This prevents a malicious actor from:

• Directing replication notification traffic to arbitrary endpoints
• Using the follow mechanism as a DDoS amplification vector