diff --git a/helpers/handlebarsHelpers.js b/helpers/handlebarsHelpers.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..771cdfae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helpers/handlebarsHelpers.js
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+const Handlebars = require('handlebars');
+const config = require('config');
+
+module.exports = {
+    // define any extra helpers you may need
+  googleAnalytics () {
+    const googleApiKey = config.get('AnalyticsConfig.GoogleId');
+    return new Handlebars.SafeString(
+            `<script>
+        (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
+        (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
+        m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
+        })(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
+        ga('create', '${googleApiKey}', 'auto');
+        ga('send', 'pageview');
+        </script>`
+        );
+  },
+  addOpenGraph (title, mimeType, showUrl, source, description, thumbnail) {
+    let basicTags = `<meta property="og:title" content="${title}"> 
+          <meta property="og:url" content="${showUrl}" > 
+          <meta property="og:site_name" content="Spee.ch" > 
+          <meta property="og:description" content="${description}">`;
+    if (mimeType === 'video/mp4') {
+      return new Handlebars.SafeString(
+                `${basicTags} <meta property="og:image" content="${thumbnail}" > 
+          <meta property="og:image:type" content="image/png" >
+          <meta property="og:image:width" content="600" >
+          <meta property="og:image:height" content="315" >
+          <meta property="og:type" content="video" > 
+          <meta property="og:video" content="${source}" > 
+          <meta property="og:video:secure_url" content="${source}" > 
+          <meta property="og:video:type" content="${mimeType}" >`
+            );
+    } else if (mimeType === 'image/gif') {
+      return new Handlebars.SafeString(
+                `${basicTags} <meta property="og:image" content="${source}" > 
+          <meta property="og:image:type" content="${mimeType}" >
+          <meta property="og:image:width" content="600" >
+          <meta property="og:image:height" content="315" >
+          <meta property="og:type" content="video.other" >`
+            );
+    } else {
+      return new Handlebars.SafeString(
+                `${basicTags} <meta property="og:image" content="${source}" > 
+          <meta property="og:image:type" content="${mimeType}" >
+          <meta property="og:image:width" content="600" >
+          <meta property="og:image:height" content="315" >
+          <meta property="og:type" content="article" >`
+            );
+    }
+  },
+  addTwitterCard (mimeType, source, embedUrl, directFileUrl) {
+    let basicTwitterTags = `<meta name="twitter:site" content="@speechch" >`;
+    if (mimeType === 'video/mp4') {
+      return new Handlebars.SafeString(
+                `${basicTwitterTags} <meta name="twitter:card" content="player" >
+          <meta name="twitter:player" content="${embedUrl}>
+          <meta name="twitter:player:width" content="600" >
+          <meta name="twitter:text:player_width" content="600" >
+          <meta name="twitter:player:height" content="337" >
+          <meta name="twitter:player:stream" content="${directFileUrl}" >
+          <meta name="twitter:player:stream:content_type" content="video/mp4" >
+          `
+            );
+    } else {
+      return new Handlebars.SafeString(
+                `${basicTwitterTags} <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" >`
+            );
+    }
+  },
+  ifConditional (varOne, operator, varTwo, options) {
+    switch (operator) {
+      case '===':
+        return (varOne === varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
+      case '!==':
+        return (varOne !== varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
+      case '<':
+        return (varOne < varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
+      case '<=':
+        return (varOne <= varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
+      case '>':
+        return (varOne > varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
+      case '>=':
+        return (varOne >= varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
+      case '&&':
+        return (varOne && varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
+      case '||':
+        return (varOne || varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
+      case 'mod3':
+        return ((parseInt(varOne) % 3) === 0) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
+      default:
+        return options.inverse(this);
+    }
+  },
+};
diff --git a/helpers/lbryApi.js b/helpers/lbryApi.js
index 3777c593..d04b9f9c 100644
--- a/helpers/lbryApi.js
+++ b/helpers/lbryApi.js
@@ -120,4 +120,15 @@ module.exports = {
         });
     });
   },
+  createChannel (channelName) {
+    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+      resolve({
+        tx      : 'test',
+        txid    : 'test',
+        nout    : 'test',
+        fee     : 'test',
+        claim_id: 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
+      });
+    });
+  },
 };
diff --git a/models/user.js b/models/user.js
index d9acb6ee..76043b11 100644
--- a/models/user.js
+++ b/models/user.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-module.exports = (sequelize, { STRING, BOOLEAN, INTEGER }) => {
+module.exports = (sequelize, { STRING }) => {
   const User = sequelize.define(
-        'User',
+    'User',
     {
       channelName: {
         type     : STRING,
@@ -21,6 +21,11 @@ module.exports = (sequelize, { STRING, BOOLEAN, INTEGER }) => {
     },
     {
       freezeTableName: true,
+      instanceMethods: {
+        validPassword: function (password) {
+          return (password === this.password);
+        },
+      },
     }
     );
 
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index ed745433..97d90dd1 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@
     "helmet": "^3.8.1",
     "mysql2": "^1.3.5",
     "nodemon": "^1.11.0",
+    "passport": "^0.4.0",
+    "passport-local": "^1.0.0",
     "sequelize": "^4.1.0",
     "sleep": "^5.1.1",
     "socket.io": "^2.0.1",
diff --git a/passport/local-login.js b/passport/local-login.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4dd50517
--- /dev/null
+++ b/passport/local-login.js
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+const PassportLocalStrategy = require('passport-local').Strategy;
+const db = require('./models');
+
+module.exports = new PassportLocalStrategy(
+  {
+    usernameField    : 'username',  // username key in the request body
+    passwordField    : 'password',  // password key in the request body
+    session          : false,
+    passReqToCallback: true,
+  },
+  (username, password, done) => {
+    return db.User
+        .findOne({where: {channelName: username}})
+        .then(user => {
+          if (!user) {
+            return done(null, false, {message: 'Incorrect username or password.'});
+          }
+          if (!user.validPassword(password)) {
+            return done(null, false, {message: 'Incorrect username or password.'});
+          }
+          return done(null, user);
+        })
+        .catch(error => {
+          return done(error);
+        });
+  },
+);
diff --git a/passport/local-signup.js b/passport/local-signup.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ea3fa9b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/passport/local-signup.js
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+const db = require('./models');
+const PassportLocalStrategy = require('passport-local').Strategy;
+const lbryApi = require('../helpers/lbryApi.js');
+
+module.exports = new PassportLocalStrategy(
+  {
+    usernameField    : 'email',  // sets the custom name of parameters in the POST body message
+    passwordField    : 'password',  // sets the custom name of parameters in the POST body message
+    session          : false, // set to false because we will use token approach to auth
+    passReqToCallback: true,  // we want to be able to read the post body message parameters in the callback
+  },
+  (req, username, password, done) => {
+    // create the channel and retrieve the metadata
+    lbryApi.createChannel(username)
+      .then(channelInfo => {
+        // define an object that contains all the user data
+        const userData = {
+          channelName: username,
+          channelId  : channelInfo.claim_Id,
+          password   : password,
+          email      : req.body.email.trim(),
+        };
+        return db.User.create(userData);
+      })
+      .then(user => {
+        return done(null);
+      })
+      .catch(error => {
+        return done(error);
+      });
+  },
+);
diff --git a/routes/page-routes.js b/routes/page-routes.js
index 36fd1517..0aace52f 100644
--- a/routes/page-routes.js
+++ b/routes/page-routes.js
@@ -1,8 +1,30 @@
 const errorHandlers = require('../helpers/errorHandlers.js');
 const db = require('../models');
 const { postToStats, getStatsSummary, getTrendingClaims, getRecentClaims } = require('../controllers/statsController.js');
+const passport = require('passport');
+const { deAuthenticate } = require('../auth/authentication.js');
 
 module.exports = (app) => {
+  // route to display login page
+  app.get('/login', (req, res) => {
+    res.status(200).render('login');
+  });
+  app.get('/signup', (req, res) => {
+    res.status(200).render('signup');
+  });
+  // route for auth
+  app.post('/login', passport.authenticate('local-login'), (req, res) => {
+    // If this function gets called, authentication was successful.
+    // `req.user` contains the authenticated user.
+    res.redirect('/@' + req.user.username);
+  });
+  // route to display login page
+  // app.get('/users/:name', isAuthenticated, (req, res) => {
+  //   res.status(200).render('profile');
+  // });
+  app.get('/logout', deAuthenticate, (req, res) => {
+    res.status(200).render('/');
+  });
   // route to show 'about' page for spee.ch
   app.get('/about', (req, res) => {
     // get and render the content
diff --git a/speech.js b/speech.js
index e95b6cf6..4c18b8e7 100644
--- a/speech.js
+++ b/speech.js
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
 const siofu = require('socketio-file-upload');
 const expressHandlebars = require('express-handlebars');
 const Handlebars = require('handlebars');
+const handlebarsHelpers = require('./helpers/handlebarsHelpers.js');
 const config = require('config');
 const logger = require('winston');
 const { getDownloadDirectory } = require('./helpers/lbryApi');
@@ -11,6 +12,7 @@ const helmet = require('helmet');
 const PORT = 3000; // set port
 const app = express(); // create an Express application
 const db = require('./models'); // require our models for syncing
+const passport = require('passport');
 
 // configure logging
 const logLevel = config.get('Logging.LogLevel');
@@ -30,103 +32,19 @@ app.use((req, res, next) => {  // custom logging middleware to log all incomming
   next();
 });
 
+// initialize passport
+app.use(passport.initialize());
+// Load passport strategies
+const localSignupStrategy = require('./passport/local-signup.js');
+const localLoginStrategy = require('./passport/local-login.js');
+passport.use('local-signup', localSignupStrategy);
+passport.use('local-login', localLoginStrategy);
+
 // configure handlebars & register it with express app
 const hbs = expressHandlebars.create({
   defaultLayout: 'main', // sets the default layout
   handlebars   : Handlebars, // includes basic handlebars for access to that library
-  helpers      : {
-    // define any extra helpers you may need
-    googleAnalytics () {
-      const googleApiKey = config.get('AnalyticsConfig.GoogleId');
-      return new Handlebars.SafeString(
-        `<script>
-        (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
-        (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
-        m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
-        })(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
-        ga('create', '${googleApiKey}', 'auto');
-        ga('send', 'pageview');
-        </script>`
-      );
-    },
-    addOpenGraph (title, mimeType, showUrl, source, description, thumbnail) {
-      let basicTags = `<meta property="og:title" content="${title}"> 
-          <meta property="og:url" content="${showUrl}" > 
-          <meta property="og:site_name" content="Spee.ch" > 
-          <meta property="og:description" content="${description}">`;
-      if (mimeType === 'video/mp4') {
-        return new Handlebars.SafeString(
-          `${basicTags} <meta property="og:image" content="${thumbnail}" > 
-          <meta property="og:image:type" content="image/png" >
-          <meta property="og:image:width" content="600" >
-          <meta property="og:image:height" content="315" >
-          <meta property="og:type" content="video" > 
-          <meta property="og:video" content="${source}" > 
-          <meta property="og:video:secure_url" content="${source}" > 
-          <meta property="og:video:type" content="${mimeType}" >`
-        );
-      } else if (mimeType === 'image/gif') {
-        return new Handlebars.SafeString(
-          `${basicTags} <meta property="og:image" content="${source}" > 
-          <meta property="og:image:type" content="${mimeType}" >
-          <meta property="og:image:width" content="600" >
-          <meta property="og:image:height" content="315" >
-          <meta property="og:type" content="video.other" >`
-        );
-      } else {
-        return new Handlebars.SafeString(
-          `${basicTags} <meta property="og:image" content="${source}" > 
-          <meta property="og:image:type" content="${mimeType}" >
-          <meta property="og:image:width" content="600" >
-          <meta property="og:image:height" content="315" >
-          <meta property="og:type" content="article" >`
-        );
-      }
-    },
-    addTwitterCard (mimeType, source, embedUrl, directFileUrl) {
-      let basicTwitterTags = `<meta name="twitter:site" content="@speechch" >`;
-      if (mimeType === 'video/mp4') {
-        return new Handlebars.SafeString(
-          `${basicTwitterTags} <meta name="twitter:card" content="player" >
-          <meta name="twitter:player" content="${embedUrl}>
-          <meta name="twitter:player:width" content="600" >
-          <meta name="twitter:text:player_width" content="600" >
-          <meta name="twitter:player:height" content="337" >
-          <meta name="twitter:player:stream" content="${directFileUrl}" >
-          <meta name="twitter:player:stream:content_type" content="video/mp4" >
-          `
-        );
-      } else {
-        return new Handlebars.SafeString(
-          `${basicTwitterTags} <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" >`
-        );
-      }
-    },
-    ifConditional (varOne, operator, varTwo, options) {
-      switch (operator) {
-        case '===':
-          return (varOne === varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
-        case '!==':
-          return (varOne !== varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
-        case '<':
-          return (varOne < varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
-        case '<=':
-          return (varOne <= varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
-        case '>':
-          return (varOne > varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
-        case '>=':
-          return (varOne >= varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
-        case '&&':
-          return (varOne && varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
-        case '||':
-          return (varOne || varTwo) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
-        case 'mod3':
-          return ((parseInt(varOne) % 3) === 0) ? options.fn(this) : options.inverse(this);
-        default:
-          return options.inverse(this);
-      }
-    },
-  },
+  helpers      : handlebarsHelpers,  // custom defined helpers
 });
 app.engine('handlebars', hbs.engine);
 app.set('view engine', 'handlebars');
diff --git a/views/index.handlebars b/views/index.handlebars
index 3a82aecd..5a78a2b1 100644
--- a/views/index.handlebars
+++ b/views/index.handlebars
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 <div class="wrapper">
 	{{> topBar}}
 	<div class="full"> 
-		{{> publish}}
+		{{> publishForm}}
 		{{> learnMore}}
 	</div>
 	{{> footer}}
diff --git a/views/login.handlebars b/views/login.handlebars
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..84b3515c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/views/login.handlebars
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+<div class="wrapper">
+	{{> topBar}}
+	<div class="full">
+        {{#if isAuthenticated}}
+		    {{> profile }}
+        {{else}}
+            {{> loginForm}}
+        {{/if}}
+	</div>
+	{{> footer}}
+</div>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/views/partials/publish.handlebars b/views/partials/publishForm.handlebars
similarity index 100%
rename from views/partials/publish.handlebars
rename to views/partials/publishForm.handlebars
diff --git a/views/profile.handlebars b/views/profile.handlebars
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..84b3515c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/views/profile.handlebars
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+<div class="wrapper">
+	{{> topBar}}
+	<div class="full">
+        {{#if isAuthenticated}}
+		    {{> profile }}
+        {{else}}
+            {{> loginForm}}
+        {{/if}}
+	</div>
+	{{> footer}}
+</div>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/views/setup.handlebars b/views/setup.handlebars
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..70cd3d08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/views/setup.handlebars
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+<div class="wrapper">
+	{{> topBar}}
+	<div class="full">
+        <form action="/login" method="post">
+            <div>
+                <label>Username:</label>
+                <input type="text" name="username"/>
+            </div>
+            <div>
+                <label>Password:</label>
+                <input type="password" name="password"/>
+            </div>
+            <div>
+                <input type="submit" value="Log In"/>
+            </div>
+        </form>
+	</div>
+	{{> footer}}
+</div>
\ No newline at end of file