diff --git a/auth_utils.py b/auth_utils.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..30472311
--- /dev/null
+++ b/auth_utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+import jwt
+from hashlib import md5
+
+JWT_SECRET_KEY = "my secret key"
+JWT_ALGORITHM = "HS256"
+
+JWT_AUTH_HEADER = "HTTP_AUTHORIZATION"
+
+def password_to_hash(password):
+	return md5(password.encode('utf-8')).hexdigest()
+
+def verify_password(password, hash):
+	return password_to_hash(password) == hash
+
+def jwt_encode(user):
+	payload = {
+		"user_id" : user.id
+	}
+	
+	token = jwt.encode(payload, JWT_SECRET_KEY, JWT_ALGORITHM)
+	
+	if isinstance(token, bytes):
+		return token.decode('utf-8')
+
+	return token
+
+def jwt_decode(token):
+	try:
+		payload = jwt.decode(token, JWT_SECRET_KEY, algorithms = [JWT_ALGORITHM])
+	except jwt.DecodeError:
+		raise Exception("Error decoding signature")
+	except jwt.InvalidTokenError:
+		raise Exception("Invalid token")
+		
+	user_id = payload["user_id"]
+	return user_id
+	
+def authorize(request):
+	token = request.headers.get(JWT_AUTH_HEADER, '')
+	user_id = jwt_decode(token)
+	return user_id