Atlas-PoC

A novel machine and method that turns standard, battle-tested classical and post-quantum cryptographic primitives into a living, presence-bound trust substrate — keys that exist only while you're alive and present, identity without biometrics, and no central authority.

Proof-of-concept implementation of the Atlas protocol — a post-quantum, live-presence identity substrate: one anonymous root generates unlinkable per-context pseudonyms, a live signal times and gates the cryptography (it never enters a key), and every feature (messaging, vault, capture, recovery, authentication) runs under one enrolled identity + live presence.

Liveness is not identity. The live signal proves only that a person is alive and present — and, with a second device, that both sensors are on one body right now. It is checked by the signals' own in-the-moment coherence and cross-device correlation; it is never matched against a stored physiological profile of a person, and Atlas keeps no biometric template and does no biometric identification. Physiology only times entropy and gates operations. The who is bound by the device's own Secure Enclave biometric (Face ID / Touch ID), whose template never leaves the enclave and which Atlas never sees or stores. (Note: the "recognition" tunnel is a Diffie–Hellman key agreement, not face recognition.)

Layout

• backend/ — the Python protocol core + Mac-side node/verifier. The reference-of-record: every primitive, protocol, and property is defined and tested here. Built + tested. See backend/README.md.
• ios/AtlasCore/ — the Swift port of the crypto core. It compiles and passes its own test suite, kept byte-for-byte in parity with the Python via shared known-answer vectors (ParityTests).
• ios/AtlasApp/ — the iOS app (SwiftUI): the one shared session + UI + the device-only seams (Secure Enclave, the Colmi R10 ring over BLE, camera/LiDAR). Runs on physical iPhones.

Status

Maturity has three rungs: built + tested (runs in this repo, tests pass), device-only (needs a physical iPhone — Secure Enclave, ring, camera — so it's exercised on hardware, not in CI), and not built.

Both the Python core and the Swift AtlasCore reach built + tested: CI runs them on every push — the backend suite (637 tests, on the pure-Python default and the native-Ursa path) plus the Swift core/parity suite (217 tests) on macOS. See .github/workflows/ci.yml.

This is a proof of concept, and it is honest about what is and isn't finished. Where a seam is a stub or a layer is designed-not-built, it says so plainly below — and because it is open source (AGPL-3.0), those are invitations to contribute, not hidden debt.

Beyond the milestone spec — also built + tested:

• Live group session — N named users co-derive one live LK through a blind relay; this ran end-to-end on two iPhones with forward-secret group messaging. The handshake is identity-authenticated (each KEM key is signed by its author identity) and members compare a safety number to rule out a man-in-the-middle. See HANDOFF_LIVE_LK.md.
• Verified-human authenticator (backend/atlas/auth/relying_party.py) — Atlas authenticates a person to a relying party (a bank, a service) over passkeys, binding liveness + presence to the RP's challenge. It is NOT a bank / wallet / payment rail — an authenticator existing services can consume over a protocol they already speak. Built + tested, with Swift parity. See HANDOFF_AUTH.md.
• Anonymous-credential unlinkability — a pure-Python Pointcheval–Sanders scheme (backend/atlas/realid/ps_credential.py) behind a swappable credential-scheme seam, so the unlinkable verification-inheritance path runs everywhere (the archived Ursa BBS+ is now an optional native accelerator, not a hard dependency).
• Spaces (social containers inside a vault — not to be confused with the satellite space tier) — backend/atlas/spaces/ + ios/…/Spaces/: access / identity / persistence tiers, content with threaded comments, like/dislike votes, reports, Sybil-free polls at three anonymity levels, a receipt-gated market, and soul-bound participation tokens (non-transferable, non-monetary). Built + tested on both platforms, with cross-impl parity.
• BLS-verified drand beacon — the provenance timestamp root now verifies the drand BLS threshold signature against the pinned League-of-Entropy public key (not just the hash binding), validated against a live round. See backend/atlas/beacon/drand.py.

Notes:

• "built + tested" = passes in CI: 637 backend tests + the Swift AtlasCore suite (217 tests). M2's liveness is tested in simulation (synthetic streams), not a real ring; M5's PAD is tested over depth/moiré summaries, not a real camera.
• "device-only" = needs a physical iPhone (Xcode, Secure Enclave, CoreBluetooth, camera).
• Provenance's load-bearing guarantee is accountable attribution — content bound to a verified-human pseudonym, resolvable to the System-ID only under cause — with PAD demoted to an advisory fraud signal (the analog-hole "is the scene real" problem is explicitly not claimed).

Crypto posture (honest): the core is post-quantum — ML-DSA-65 + Ed25519 signatures, SPHINCS+ root, ML-KEM-768 + X25519 KEM — and persona↔persona unlinkability is hash/HKDF-derived, so it is post-quantum too (separate identities stay unlinkable even against a quantum adversary). The classical (not-yet-PQ) residue is narrow: the anonymous credential's same-credential multi-show unlinkability and the discrete-log range-proof soundness, with a STARK migration path for the latter. Not built (designed): on-network governance, the AI tiers, and the space tier (satellites — distinct from Spaces). The economy/token is designed and its capabilities described, but the implementation is not included here.

Docs

• SPEC.md — the protocol specification (skeleton, v0.1): notation, threat model, the identity tree, key schedule + ratchet, liveness gate, presence unwrap, recognition tunnel, authenticator, unlinkability — written to be attacked (see its §12 "What to attack"). Generated from and verified against the running code.
• VISION.md — the thesis (the soul-bound entity) and the horizons: today's proof, 5 / 20 / 100 years — the nearer the horizon, the more provable the claim.
• GOVERNANCE.md — how Atlas is owned, funded, and kept a public good: company holds the IP; a nonprofit foundation gets a free irrevocable license + a share of revenue; contributors join the commons. Marks what's in force vs. committed.
• CAPABILITIES.md — every capability of the system, grouped by layer and tagged by maturity (built + tested / built / sim / device-gated / designed / vision).
• APPLICATIONS.md — what the capabilities unlock, by domain, each grounded in the specific capabilities that enable it.
• NAMING.md — the canonical model, leading with the load-bearing invariant: Value = QRNG; the live/timing signal GATES and TIMES but never enters a key or value ("biology times; QRNG values"). Two clocks, one meaning each: the secret epoch key and the public drand timekeeper.
• SECURITY_PRIVACY_REVIEW.md — whole-system security & privacy audit: dependency/static scans + adversarial subsystem review, findings ranked by severity, what's sound, and the open hardware/design items.
• backend/SECURITY_TESTS.md — what the tests actually assert (security vs functional).
• backend/parity/parity_vectors.json — cross-implementation known-answer vectors (Python ↔ Swift); regenerate with python -m tools.gen_parity_vectors.
• HARDWARE_TESTING.md — the hardware/red-team runbook with a measurable pass/fail for each real-world seam sim can't prove.
• HARDWARE_RESULTS.md — the lab notebook: real-device runs performed so far (n=2 users, two iPhones, two Colmi R10 rings — live signals, not synthetic), what they establish and don't, and the queued next live tests.
• REALID_MODULE.md — identity / real-ID binding / unlinkability / duress (test data only); see also THREAT_COVERAGE.md.
• CREDENTIAL_PQC_POSTURE.md — the credential posture: classical credential shielded behind the ML-KEM+X25519 PQC tunnel, behind a swappable (PQ-ready) scheme interface; holder-disclosure is absolute (designated opener rejected).
• PAYMENT_MODULE.md — the payment add-on: the air gap is not proven in sim; reviewer + audit sign-off required before any value-bearing use.

Quick start

cd backend
pip install -r requirements.txt      # pure-Python by default (Ursa BBS+ is optional)
python -m pytest -q                  # 637 tests
python -m demos.demo_milestone1_text

# Swift core (macOS):  cd ios/AtlasCore && swift test

AI use & authorship

The Atlas invention — its architecture, mechanisms, and design decisions — is the work of the inventor, Aun Ali. AI tools were used for research, drafting, and implementation assistance under the inventor's direction. The ideas and the direction originate with the inventor.

AI clients used: Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity

Founder's note

Greetings reader,

It is with great hope that I reveal this design and code. This project started as a return to normal workflow after a prolonged medical disability, as a desire to help other people struggling with disability and mental illness break their bonds. Med school, healing, self discovery, and helping others deal with trauma, illness, and loss has taught me that the gates to freedom lie not in any one plane, but exist dispersed and guarded selfishly, accessible only to the few wielding connection, wealth, and safety. It is difficult to spend time in a position to help others only to feel helpless in the face of apathy, abandonment, danger, disease, and poverty, and Atlas is intended to behave as a bulwark to these ghosts of a fraught past. I invite you to contact us to help us build and fulfill this vision for a brighter future for all of us.

Aun Ali, MBBS Founder, Clockwork Tree Inc.

Notices

Copyright © 2026 Clockwork Tree Inc. All rights reserved. The source in this repository is the work of Clockwork Tree Inc. Commercial licensing: Clockwork Tree Inc.

Patent pending — the underlying invention (inventor: Aun Ali; assigned to Clockwork Tree Inc.) is the subject of a filed provisional patent application.

Trademarks — Atlas™, PoLE™, Renaissance Ecosystem™, and Clockwork Tree™ are trademarks of Clockwork Tree Inc.

No surveillance, no manipulation — Atlas performs no engagement-optimization, behavioral profiling, or attention-harvesting. The algorithms here are cryptographic, not behavioral.