How It All Works
Own your domain. Publish with structure. Prove identity. Distribute with leverage.
Attorneys do not just need a website. They need an owned digital asset that stays with them, supports credibility, and keeps working as search and AI reshape how people discover expertise. This page shows the simple system behind that: domain ownership, a real publishing platform, verifiable identity, and distribution that compounds.
Step 1
Own your domain
A personal site is portable. Employer pages and platform profiles are not.
Step 2
Publish on a real CMS
Ghost or WordPress. Both work. The key is structure and consistency.
Step 3
Prove identity
OLPN connects who you are, what you own, and what you are credentialed to do.
language Start with your domain
For attorneys, reputation is an asset. Your domain is where that asset can live without depending on anyone else’s brand, policies, or future. It is the one place you can control the structure, the narrative, and the archive.
This matters more now because discovery is changing. People still search, but they also ask questions inside AI systems that summarize, cite, and recommend. Owned structure is how you stay legible in both worlds.
web Choose a publishing platform you control
Ghost
bolt- Fast, clean publishing workflow
- Excellent performance and simplicity
- Great for personal hubs and firm knowledge systems
WordPress
extension- Huge ecosystem and flexibility
- Common for firms and marketing teams
- Plays well with many integrations
Publish.law supports both
Publish.law provides hosting and support for attorneys and law firms on Ghost and WordPress. The goal is simple: you publish, the platform stays healthy, fast, and secure.
hub Connect your site to OLPN
OLPN gives you a decentralized identity layer that you own. In plain terms:
Entity
A person or a firm. The identity record.
Property
A website you own and control, like your domain.
Credentials
Verifiable roles and relationships issued by properties in the network.
code Example: the OLPN identity proof used on this site
This is the exact JSON currently injected into the home page of nickcarroll.com. It declares the entity, the owned property, and linked credentials.
<script type="application/json" id='olpn-hub'>
{
"entity_type": "person",
"network_id": "§:entity:nickcarroll.com",
"details": {
"name": "Nick Carroll",
"domain": "nickcarroll.com",
"email": null,
"location": "Tampa, FL",
"legal_name": "Nicholas J. Carroll",
"established": "",
"registered_in": null,
"legal_entity_type": null,
"description": "I’m the founder of Alt[2+1] Development, where we build infrastructure for self-hosted legal publishing — including the OLPN protocol, which links domain-bound identity with verifiable credentials."
},
"properties": [
{ "id": "§:property:nickcarroll.com" }
],
"credentials": [
{ "id": "@[email protected]" },
{ "id": "@[email protected]" },
{ "id": "@[email protected]/supporter" }
]
}
</script>
<script type='application/json' id='olpn-property'>
{
"olpn_property": {
"id": "§:property:nickcarroll.com",
"name": "Nick Carroll",
"url": "https://nickcarroll.com",
"type": "Entity Website",
"description": "The canonical publishing hub for Nick Carroll, originating all content and hosting verifiable OLPN identity proofs. Publishes on legal tech, decentralized identity, and open protocols, with distribution across web, email, RSS, and the Fediverse.",
"ownership": [
{ "network_id": "§:entity:nickcarroll.com" }
]
}
}
</script>How it connects in practice
- Ghost: publish the OLPN JSON via Code Injection or a theme partial.
- WordPress: publish the same proofs via an OLPN plugin workflow.
- Result: your identity and ownership claims are portable, consistent, and machine-readable.
rocket_launch Distribution that compounds
Owned publishing is the foundation. Distribution is how it grows. The Legal Examiner is one way attorneys can publish in a credible environment, reach the right audiences, and connect that work back to an owned hub.
A publishing channel
TLE helps attorneys build visibility through consistent, structured publishing with topic organization and firm hubs.
A credential issuer
In an OLPN enabled future, publishing properties can issue author credentials that tie back to your identity record and owned domain.
timeline Where this goes next
The long-term goal is a distributed legal publishing network where identity and credibility do not depend on a single platform. Bar associations, publishers, and firms can onboard as properties and issue credentials that map real-world roles and relationships.
Bar associations
Membership and standing can be expressed as verifiable credentials.
Firms
Employment, roles, practice group affiliations, and internal publishing can be credentialed.
Publishers
Authorship credentials connect bylines to durable identity hubs.
When identity, ownership, and credentials become composable, organizations can curate and build directories, discovery tools, and knowledge systems without rebuilding trust from scratch every time.
Want a version of this for you or your firm?
I help attorneys build an owned publishing hub, choose the right platform, connect it to verifiable identity, and set up distribution that compounds.