Documentation

1.5 What are synonyms?

Synonyms are XRIs that share the same authority and therefore all services and community (sub-) XRIs.

You can register synonyms at @freeXRI. You will see the synonym as a separate entry in your XRI list and can later delete it again, but all changes you make to the synonym will also affect the 'original' XRI. If you delete the 'original' XRI, the synonym stays (i.e. this would be like a rename operation).

If you register a community (sub-) XRI under an XRI with an synonym, this will result in a so-called 'inherited' synonym.

For example, assume you have the following XRIs registered as synonyms (i.e. they share the same authority): @free*earth and =web*mars. Then you decide to register the XRI @free*earth*moon; this new XRI will automatically also be known under the name =web*mars*moon, since @free*earth and =web*mars are synonyms. @free*earth*moon and =web*mars*moon are then called 'inherited' synonyms and cannot be deleted separately.

In theory it is also possible to register 'recursive' synonyms, e.g. you register @free*earth*test to use the same authority as @free*earth. In this case, the new XRI uses the same authority as its parent XRI. However, this is not recommended for most practical purposes.

When you configure an XRI in our configuration panel, you can see a list of all known XRIs that use a given authority.

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