Post-Quantum Cryptographic Suite

Quantum computers will break RSA and elliptic curve cryptography. This is not a question of if, but when. AI systems that rely on classical cryptographic authentication today are building on foundations that will crumble. SCBE ships with a full post-quantum cryptographic stack that is quantum-resistant now, not as a future migration plan.

The Problem: Harvest Now, Decrypt Later

Adversaries are already collecting encrypted data today with the expectation that quantum computers will let them decrypt it in the future. For AI governance systems, this means that every audit log, every governance decision, every signed attestation created with classical cryptography has an expiration date on its integrity guarantee.

AI systems are particularly vulnerable because their governance records must remain verifiable for years or decades. A tampered audit trail from 2026 that cannot be verified in 2032 undermines the entire governance chain of trust.

SCBE's PQC Stack

ML-KEM-768 (Key Encapsulation)

// Key encapsulation flow
const { publicKey, secretKey } = ml_kem_768.keygen();
const { ciphertext, sharedSecret } = ml_kem_768.encapsulate(publicKey);
const decryptedSecret = ml_kem_768.decapsulate(ciphertext, secretKey);
// sharedSecret === decryptedSecret

ML-DSA-65 (Digital Signatures)

// Signature flow
const { publicKey, secretKey } = ml_dsa_65.keygen();
const signature = ml_dsa_65.sign(message, secretKey);
const valid = ml_dsa_65.verify(message, signature, publicKey);
// valid === true for authentic messages

AES-256-GCM (Symmetric Encryption)

BLAKE2s (Hashing)

GeoSeal: Location-Bound Encryption

GeoSeal extends the PQC stack with location-bound cryptographic envelopes. A GeoSeal proves that data was sealed at a specific geographic location and time, binding the cryptographic attestation to physical space.

To unseal, the verifier checks both the ML-DSA-65 signature and the location/time hashes. The data can only be verified as authentic if the location and time claims match the cryptographic binding.

Sacred Eggs: Controlled Mutation Gates

Sacred Eggs are cryptographically verified mutation points in the GeoSeed network. Each Egg represents a controlled genesis event -- a new seed, a new training run, a new model version. The Egg's cryptographic envelope ensures that mutations can only occur through the proper governance channel.

• Egg Creation: A new Egg is minted with an ML-DSA-65 signature from the creating council.
• Egg Hatching: Requires quorum approval from the BFT council (at least 4/6 councils must sign).
• Egg Verification: Any node can verify the Egg's signature chain to confirm it was properly created and hatched.
• Egg Revocation: A compromised Egg can be revoked by posting a signed revocation notice, which propagates through the network's Merkle tree.

RWP v3 Protocol: Read-Write-Prove

The Read-Write-Prove (RWP) protocol wraps every data operation in a cryptographic envelope that provides non-repudiation. Version 3 upgrades all signatures to ML-DSA-65 and all key exchanges to ML-KEM-768.

{
  "version": "3.0",
  "operation": "READ | WRITE | PROVE",
  "payload": { ... },
  "signature": "ML-DSA-65 signature over payload",
  "kem_ciphertext": "ML-KEM-768 encapsulated session key",
  "timestamp": "ISO-8601 with NTP attestation",
  "chain_hash": "BLAKE2s hash linking to previous envelope",
  "governance_stamp": {
    "council_votes": [6 boolean votes],
    "decision": "ALLOW | QUARANTINE | DENY",
    "quorum_met": true
  }
}
            

liboqs Migration Notes

The underlying PQC library (liboqs) renamed algorithms to match NIST's final standard names. SCBE handles this with a fallback pattern:

def _select_dsa_algorithm():
    """Try NIST standard name first, fall back to draft name."""
    try:
        return oqs.Signature("ML-DSA-65")     # FIPS 204 final
    except oqs.MechanismNotSupportedError:
        return oqs.Signature("Dilithium3")     # Draft name

def _select_kem_algorithm():
    """Try NIST standard name first, fall back to draft name."""
    try:
        return oqs.KeyEncapsulation("ML-KEM-768")  # FIPS 203 final
    except oqs.MechanismNotSupportedError:
        return oqs.KeyEncapsulation("Kyber768")     # Draft name
        

This ensures SCBE works with both older liboqs releases (pre-0.9.0) that use the draft names and newer releases that use the NIST standard names.

Standards Compliance