The PASETO spec recommends - no, *requires* - that implementations enforce
type safety for keys, and e.g. do not pass them around as arbitrary byte
strings. Typed wrapper objects are recommended.
I originally followed this advice when starting the lib. However, key wrapping
and type safety is now also a feature of util.crypto. All we're doing is
duplicating it unnecessarily with this additional wrapper code.
PASETO provides an alternative to JWT with the promise of fewer implementation
pitfalls. The v4.public algorithm allows asymmetric cryptographically-verified
token issuance and validation.
In summary, such tokens can be issued by one party and securely verified by
any other party independently using the public key of the issuer. This has a
number of potential applications in a decentralized network and ecosystem such
as XMPP. For example, such tokens could be combined with XEP-0317 to allow
hats to be verified even in the context of a third-party MUC service.
