diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..143b1ca01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+
+/target/
+**/*.rs.bk
+Cargo.lock
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2b7bb7b82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+[package]
+name = "alcoholic_jwt"
+version = "0.1.0"
+authors = ["Vincent Ambo <vincent@aprila.no>"]
+
+[dependencies]
+openssl = "0.10"
+serde = "1.0"
+serde_json = "1.0"
+serde_derive = "1.0"
+base64 = "0.9"
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a7638c524
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,185 @@
+//! Implements a library for verifying JSON Web Tokens using the
+//! `RS256` signature algorithm.
+//!
+//! This library is specifically aimed at developers that consume
+//! tokens from services which provide their RSA public keys in
+//! [JWKS][] format.
+//!
+//! ## Usage example (token with `kid`-claim)
+//!
+//! ```rust
+//! extern crate alcoholic_jwt;
+//!
+//! use alcoholic_jwt::{JWKS, Validation, validate, token_kid};
+//!
+//! fn validate_token() {
+//!     // serde instances provided
+//!     let jwks: JWKS = some_http_client(jwks_url).json();
+//!
+//!     let token: String = some_token_fetcher();
+//!
+//!     // Several types of built-in validations are provided:
+//!     let validations = vec![
+//!       Validation::Issuer("some-issuer"),
+//!       Validation::Audience("some-audience"),
+//!       Validation::SubjectPresent,
+//!     ];
+//!
+//!     // Extracting a KID is about the only safe operation that can be
+//!     // done on a JWT before validating it.
+//!     let kid = token_kid(token).expect("No 'kid' claim present in token");
+//!
+//!     let jwk = jwks.find(kid).expect("Specified key not found in set");
+//!
+//!     match validate(token, jwk, validations) {
+//!       Valid => println!("Token is valid!"),
+//!       InvalidSignature(reason) => println!("Token signature invalid: {}", reason),
+//!       InvalidClaims(reasons) => {
+//!           println!("Token claims are totally invalid!");
+//!           for reason in reasons {
+//!               println!("Validation failure: {}", reason);
+//!           }
+//!       },
+//!     }
+//! }
+//! ```
+//!
+//! [JWKS]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7517
+
+#[macro_use] extern crate serde_derive;
+
+extern crate base64;
+extern crate openssl;
+extern crate serde;
+extern crate serde_json;
+
+use base64::{decode_config, URL_SAFE};
+use openssl::bn::BigNum;
+use openssl::pkey::Public;
+use openssl::rsa::{Rsa};
+
+/// JWT algorithm used. The only supported algorithm is currently
+/// RS256.
+#[derive(Deserialize, Debug)]
+enum KeyAlgorithm { RS256 }
+
+/// Type of key contained in a JWT. The only supported key type is
+/// currently RSA.
+#[derive(Deserialize, Debug)]
+enum KeyType { RSA }
+
+/// Representation of a single JSON Web Key. See [RFC
+/// 7517](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7517#section-4).
+#[derive(Deserialize)]
+pub struct JWK {
+    kty: KeyType,
+    alg: Option<KeyAlgorithm>,
+    kid: Option<String>,
+
+    // Shared modulus
+    n: String,
+
+    // Public key exponent
+    e: String,
+}
+
+/// Representation of a collection ("set") of JSON Web Keys. See
+/// [RFC 7517](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7517#section-5).
+pub struct JWKS {
+    // This is a vector instead of some kind of map-like structure
+    // because key IDs are in fact optional.
+    //
+    // Technically having multiple keys with the same KID would not
+    // violate the JWKS-definition either, but behaviour in that case
+    // is unspecified.
+    keys: Vec<JWK>,
+}
+
+impl JWKS {
+    /// Attempt to find a JWK by its key ID.
+    pub fn find(&self, kid: &str) -> Option<&JWK> {
+        self.keys.iter().find(|jwk| jwk.kid == Some(kid.into()))
+    }
+}
+
+/// Representation of a JSON Web Token. See [RFC
+/// 7519](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7519).
+pub struct JWT {}
+
+/// Possible token claim validations. This enumeration only covers
+/// common use-cases, for other types of validations the user is
+/// encouraged to inspect the claim set manually.
+pub enum Validation {}
+
+/// Possible results of a token validation.
+pub enum ValidationResult {
+    /// Signature and claim validation succeeded.
+    Valid,
+
+    /// Decoding of the provided JWK failed.
+    InvalidJWK(String),
+
+    /// Signature validation failed, i.e. because of a non-matching
+    /// public key.
+    InvalidSignature,
+
+    /// One or more claim validations failed.
+    // TODO: Provide reasons?
+    InvalidClaims,
+}
+
+/// Attempt to extract the `kid`-claim out of a JWT's header claims.
+///
+/// This function is normally used when a token provider has multiple
+/// public keys in rotation at the same time that could all still have
+/// valid tokens issued under them.
+///
+/// This is only safe if the key set containing the currently allowed
+/// key IDs is fetched from a trusted source.
+pub fn token_kid(jwt: JWT) -> Option<String> {
+    unimplemented!()
+}
+
+/// Validate the signature of a JSON Web Token and optionally apply
+/// claim validations. Signatures are always verified before claims,
+/// and if a signature verification passes *all* claim validations are
+/// run and returned.
+///
+/// It is the user's task to ensure that the correct JWK is passed in
+/// for validation.
+pub fn validate(jwt: JWT, jwk: JWK, validations: Vec<Validation>) -> ValidationResult {
+    unimplemented!()
+}
+
+// Internal implementation
+//
+// The functions in the following section are not part of the public
+// API of this library.
+
+/// Decode a single key fragment to an OpenSSL BigNum.
+fn decode_fragment(fragment: &str) -> Option<BigNum> {
+    let bytes = decode_config(fragment, URL_SAFE).ok()?;
+    BigNum::from_slice(&bytes).ok()
+}
+
+/// Decode an RSA public key from a JWK by constructing it directly
+/// from the public RSA key fragments.
+fn public_key_from_jwk(jwk: &JWK) -> Option<Rsa<Public>> {
+    let jwk_n = decode_fragment(&jwk.n)?;
+    let jwk_e = decode_fragment(&jwk.e)?;
+    Rsa::from_public_components(jwk_n, jwk_e).ok()
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_fragment_decoding() {
+        let fragment = "ngRRjNbXgPW29oNtF0JgsyyfTwPyEL0u_X16s453X2AOc33XGFxVKLEQ7R_TiMenaKcr-tPifYqgps_deyi0XOr4I3SOdOMtAVKDZJCANe--CANOHZb-meIfjKhCHisvT90fm5Apd6qPRVsXsZ7A8pmClZHKM5fwZUkBv8NsPLm2Xy2sGOZIiwP_7z8m3j0abUzniPQsx2b3xcWimB9vRtshFHN1KgPUf1ALQ5xzLfJnlFkCxC7kmOxKC7_NpQ4kJR_DKzKFV_r3HxTqf-jddHcXIrrMcLQXCSyeLQtLaz7whQ4F-EfL42z4XgwPr4ji3sct2gWL13EqlbE5DDxLKQ";
+        let bignum = decode_fragment(fragment).expect("Failed to decode fragment");
+
+        let expected = "19947781743618558124649689124245117083485690334420160711273532766920651190711502679542723943527557680293732686428091794139998732541701457212387600480039297092835433997837314251024513773285252960725418984381935183495143908023024822433135775773958512751261112853383693442999603704969543668619221464654540065497665889289271044207667765128672709218996183649696030570183970367596949687544839066873508106034650634722970893169823917299050098551447676778961773465887890052852528696684907153295689693676910831376066659456592813140662563597179711588277621736656871685099184755908108451080261403193680966083938080206832839445289";
+        assert_eq!(expected, format!("{}", bignum), "Decoded fragment should match ");
+    }
+}