diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index bb5de26b..09e7233d 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -2935,6 +2935,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "multibase",
  "proptest",
  "qcheck",
+ "radicle-crypto",
  "radicle-git-ref-format",
  "radicle-oid",
  "schemars",
diff --git a/crates/radicle-core/Cargo.toml b/crates/radicle-core/Cargo.toml
index 63d20755..3a45e1c1 100644
--- a/crates/radicle-core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/radicle-core/Cargo.toml
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ gix-hash = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 multibase = { workspace = true }
 proptest = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 qcheck = { workspace = true, optional = true }
+radicle-crypto = { workspace = true }
 radicle-git-ref-format = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 radicle-oid = { workspace = true, default-features = false, features = ["sha1"] }
 schemars = { workspace = true, optional = true, default-features = false, features = ["derive"] }
diff --git a/crates/radicle-core/src/lib.rs b/crates/radicle-core/src/lib.rs
index 3fe21ac8..f78fd9d7 100644
--- a/crates/radicle-core/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/radicle-core/src/lib.rs
@@ -71,5 +71,8 @@ extern crate std as doc_std;
 
 extern crate alloc;
 
+pub mod node;
+pub use node::NodeId;
+
 pub mod repo;
 pub use repo::RepoId;
diff --git a/crates/radicle-core/src/node.rs b/crates/radicle-core/src/node.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1fb97777
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/radicle-core/src/node.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+//! A Radicle node on the network is identified by its [`NodeId`], which in turn
+//! is a Ed25519 public key.
+//!
+//! The human-readable format is a multibase-encoded format of the underlying Ed25519 public key, i.e.
+//! ```
+//! MULTIBASE(base58-btc, MULTICODEC(public-key-type, raw-public-key-bytes))
+//! ```
+//! which results in strings that look like:
+//! ```
+//! z6MknSLrJoTcukLrE435hVNQT4JUhbvWLX4kUzqkEStBU8Vi
+//! ```
+
+use radicle_crypto::PublicKey;
+
+/// Public identifier of a node device in the network.
+///
+/// # Legacy
+///
+/// This is a type alias, providing little protection around evolving a [`NodeId`]
+/// and having it very tightly coupled with a [`PublicKey`].
+///
+/// Future iterations will change this to provide a better API for working with
+/// [`NodeId`]'s and their usage in the protocol.
+pub type NodeId = PublicKey;