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The Sovereign Network

Zero-Knowledge Hypertext Transfer Protocol (ZHTP) — a self-contained, post-quantum, Byzantine fault-tolerant network stack written in Rust, from the cryptographic primitives all the way down to the wireless mesh that carries the packets.

A sovereign network that you can run end-to-end: identity, consensus, transport, and physical infrastructure — no trusted third parties, no centralized backbone.


Start Here

I want to… Go to
Read the canonical technical specification SOVN / ZHTP Canonical Spec v2
Understand what SOVN is and how the pieces fit together Architecture Overview
Browse all documentation Documentation
See the live validator network Network Infrastructure
Understand how validator nodes are hardened Validator Node Hardening
Understand BFT safety and quorum rules BFT Quorum Thresholds
Deploy the wireless mesh infrastructure Wireless Mesh Deployment Framework
See what the team is working on Weekly Updates

Architecture Overview

SOVN is built as a single Rust monorepo containing every layer of the stack:

  • Identity — Seed-anchored cryptographic identity. A single root seed deterministically derives all keys, enabling multi-device support without custodial recovery. Identities are registered on-chain and anchored to post-quantum keypairs.
  • Post-Quantum CryptographyDilithium5 for signatures (4595-byte signatures, 2592-byte public keys), Kyber1024 for key encapsulation. Quantum-resistant from genesis.
  • Consensus — Tendermint-style Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus with a 66.67% supermajority threshold. Three-phase commit: PreVote → PreCommit → Commit. Quorum proof committed to every block header. See BFT Quorum Thresholds.
  • Transport — QUIC-based mesh topology (port 9334) with DHT peer discovery and a custom post-quantum handshake protocol (UHP v2). All peer connections are mutually authenticated using on-chain identities.
  • Storage — Sled-backed persistent blockchain storage. Block data stored in a content-addressed blob store. State indexed by a merkle-anchored state root committed per block.
  • Token Primitives — Three-token model: SOV (native staking/governance), CBE (bonding curve token, bootstraps SOV liquidity), GRAD (graduation milestone token). Piecewise-linear bonding curve with five supply bands and an AMM pool seeded at graduation.
  • Physical Layer — Standards-based Wi-Fi mesh (WMABS) operating in license-exempt spectrum, with configurable regulatory profiles for multi-jurisdiction deployment. See Wireless Mesh Deployment Framework.
  • Application Layer — Wallet, mobile apps (iOS + Android), CLI tooling, and AI service access gated by SOV stake.

The monorepo contains 15+ specialized libraries (lib-blockchain, lib-consensus, lib-crypto, lib-identity, lib-network, lib-types, and more) coordinated through a central orchestrator binary (zhtp) and a CLI (zhtp-cli).


Network Infrastructure

The live testnet runs on three validator nodes operating BFT consensus with a 3-of-3 supermajority requirement:

Node Endpoint Role
g1 g1.thesovereignnetwork.org:9334 Validator
g2 g2.thesovereignnetwork.org:9334 Validator
g3 g3.thesovereignnetwork.org:9334 Validator
g4 77.42.77.183:9334 Observer

All validator nodes run on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, kernel 6.8.0-107, with the zhtp binary running as a dedicated non-root system user. All nodes are hardened — see Validator Node Hardening for the full applied configuration.

QUIC connections to any node are post-quantum authenticated. Clients connect to port 9334/udp using the zhtp-cli or any ZHTP-compatible client.


Documentation

Canonical Specifications

Infrastructure

  • Validator Node Hardening — complete applied hardening configuration for all validator nodes: firewall rules, SSH hardening, fail2ban, dedicated process user, attack surface removal, kernel parameters, and node migration procedure.

Wireless Mesh

Research Notes

  • BFT Quorum Thresholds — supermajority threshold derivation, quorum table by validator count, and the 6667 bps liveness bound.

Weekly Updates

Team work plans and delivery logs:


Repository

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