timelock.zone

While working on a private voting project for Nouns DAO, we realised that it would be very useful to have a time-lock service. We therefore developed two time-locked cryptography protocols, as well as the concept of a public time-locked encryption service.

Cryptography

The cryptographic protocols zk-TLCS and TLCS are described in a draft paper linked in a blog post. We will be submitting a version of this paper that contains security proofs to a conference in the near future.

timelock.zone public service

We are developing a unique cryptographic service, timelock.zone, based on the efficient and versatile TLCS protocol. The timelock.zone blockchain will be the first platform of its kind, enabling a future-oriented encryption service that promises secure data decryption until specific future times. Main features:

• Public keys for periods far into the future will be publicly available;
• Support for many cryptographic schemes;
• Relies on trusted randomness (the Drand beacon) published by the League of Entropy;
• The correctness and security of the scheme are guaranteed as long as a single party participating in the public key computation is honest;
• No trusted setup.

The core service will be publicly accessible and free for all users. As we grow and evolve, we anticipate the development of additional premium services, which will be available for a nominal fee. It is our intention that the revenues generated from these premium services will be shared among our co-founding members.

A testnet with limited functionality has been developed, and we are currently seeking partners to join us in this venture.