[anarazel]

It's needed before the actual contents of the home directory are available (i.e. mounted), if I understand correctly. Nor is it actually user-modifiable:

> Since the user record is cryptographically signed the user cannot make modifications to the file on their own (at least not without corrupting it, or knowing the private key used for signing the record).

> This file system should contain a single directory named after the user. This directory will become the home directory of the user when activated. It contains a second copy of the user record in the ~/.identity file, like in the other storage mechanisms.

Not quite sure what the purpose of this copy is, given users can delete / replace it?