JWT in Go

Source: README file of github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go package

Digest:
In short, it's a signed JSON object that does something useful (for example, authentication). It's commonly used for Bearer tokens in Oauth2. A token is made of three parts, separated by .'s. The first two parts are JSON objects, that have been base64url encoded. The last part is the signature, encoded the same way.
The first part is called the header. It contains the necessary information for verifying the last part, the signature. For example, which encryption method was used for signing and what key was used.
The part in the middle is the interesting bit. It's called the Claims and contains the actual stuff you care about. Refer to the RFC 7519 for information about reserved keys and the proper way to add your own.
JWT and OAuth:
It's worth mentioning that OAuth and JWT are not the same thing. A JWT token is simply a signed JSON object. It can be used anywhere such a thing is useful. There is some confusion, though, as JWT is the most common type of bearer token used in OAuth2 authentication.
Without going too far down the rabbit hole, here's a description of the interaction of these technologies:
- OAuth is a protocol for allowing an identity provider to be separate from the service a user is logging in to. For example, whenever you use Facebook to log into a different service (Yelp, Spotify, etc), you are using OAuth.
- OAuth defines several options for passing around authentication data. One popular method is called a "bearer token" A bearer token is simply a string that should only be held by an authentiated user. Thus, simply presenting this token proves your identity. You can probably derive from here why a JWT might make a good bearer token.
- Because bearer tokens are used for authentication, it's important they're kept secret. This is why transactions that use bearer tokens typically happen over SSL.