diff --git a/src/identities/identities.js b/src/identities/identities.js
index 2155673..289be97 100644
--- a/src/identities/identities.js
+++ b/src/identities/identities.js
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ const Identities = async ({ keystore, path, storage, ipfs } = {}) => {
     options.keystore = keystore
     const DefaultIdentityProviderType = getIdentityProvider('publickey')
     const IdentityProvider = options.provider || DefaultIdentityProviderType({ keystore })
-    const identityProvider = IdentityProvider()
+    const identityProvider = await IdentityProvider()
 
     if (!getIdentityProvider(identityProvider.type)) {
       throw new Error('Identity provider is unknown. Use addIdentityProvider(provider) to register the identity provider')
diff --git a/src/identities/providers/publickey.js b/src/identities/providers/publickey.js
index e849a2c..798167f 100644
--- a/src/identities/providers/publickey.js
+++ b/src/identities/providers/publickey.js
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ const verifyIdentity = identity => {
  * identity provider function.
  * @private
  */
-const PublicKeyIdentityProvider = ({ keystore }) => () => {
+const PublicKeyIdentityProvider = ({ keystore }) => async () => {
   /**
    * @namespace module:IdentityProviders.IdentityProvider-PublicKey
    * @memberof module:IdentityProviders