## Signatures
Nostr events are atomic and self-verifiable: generate a hash, verify the Schnorr signature against the public key—offline, without network access, and without additional context. The key *is* the identity.
In atproto, the signature is attached to the repository commit rather than the individual record. While individual verification is possible, it requires an inclusion proof via the PLC directory. Consequently, verification is no longer self-contained; it has a runtime dependency on a central entity.
In standard operation, ActivityPub signs the delivery process using the server key, not the object itself. Once forwarded, the content cannot be independently verified; object-bound signatures exist only as an optional extension (FEP-8b32) with no widespread implementation.
For a distributed public infrastructure involving many small, heterogeneous consumers, the Nostr approach therefore offers a significantly lower barrier to entry: the artifact and the proof travel together, and any participant can verify the authenticity of a data record with just a few lines of code without needing to trust a relay, server, or directory.
