In this post, I present a tiny .NET Core C# JWT API demo that creates and parses a JSON Web Token (JWT). A self-contained Swagger UI dashboard exercises the API. 

We can’t dead-drop a JWT demo without wrapping it in words about JWT background. I’ll set the scene by introducing tokens, JWTs, and surveying session state residency tradeoffs. We’ll then migrate to, high-level JWT JWT use cases, and arguments about if or when to use JWTs. 

I seek to give equal coverage to JWT upsides and downsides. Let’s get started.