Authentication Methods

Sila offers two authentication methods: OAuth2 and ECDSA.

Newly onboarding customers: New customers are REQUIRED to use the OAuth2 JWT method.

Existing customers: We highly recommend using the OAuth2 JWT method since we will eventually be sunsetting the ECDSA method. This is long-term, and we will work with customers using ECDSA on a migration plan.

Given that utilizing the JWT method is less complex than ECDSA, Sila will NOT be providing SDK support for this authentication method. If you are using JWT, we recommend not using the SDK's, as they meant primarily to simplify signing with the ECDSA method, and our newer endpoints generally do not have SDK support (eg: /transact).

JWT, or Authentication Token (recommended)

• JWT Postman Collection
• JWT Overview - start here
• /auth_token - endpoint to request a token

ECDSA

• ECDSA Overview and Examples
• Implementing Digital Signatures
• https://docs.silamoney.com/docs/sample-inputoutputs
• Generating and Managing User Private Keys

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JWT (Authentication Token) and ECDSA (legacy) Authentication

The Sila API implementation up until (not including) Release 0.2.20 only supported a proprietary signing scheme based on the ECDSA algorithm and private keys.

As of Release 0.2.20 (released Feb 2021), all new client apps will have the option to use an authentication scheme based on conventional JWT access tokens.