Wavestar Technology · Attestation architecture
Twelve independent eyes on every orbital fact.
Every settlement input — a downlink completed, fuel transferred, a slot commissioned, a manoeuvre executed — is co-signed by a quorum of independent observers. The network runs 12 seats across six categories. BLS12-381 threshold signatures aggregate to a single 96-byte proof verified with one pairing. Diversity rules prevent cartel capture; slashing conditions enforce them.
- Observers
- 12 seats
- Quorum
- 8-of-12 threshold
- Curve
- BLS12-381
- Quorum latency p99
- 420 ms
Why threshold cryptography
A 12-observer quorum beats a single commercial oracle.
A single SSA vendor is a single point of failure — commercial, technical, and legal. A 12-seat federation with explicit diversity constraints is not. Threshold BLS signatures make the verification trivial on the receiving side.
- 01
One signature, many signers
Each observer produces a BLS12-381 signature share over the canonicalised attestation payload. Shares aggregate arithmetically to a single 96-byte group-element signature — the same size as a single-signer signature. Verification is one pairing. - 02
Threshold instead of unanimous
8-of-12 is a Byzantine-tolerant majority with margin. Up to 4 observers can be offline, adversarial, or wrong, and the quorum still forms correctly. The remaining 8 produce a signature indistinguishable from a unanimous 12. - 03
Aggregatable public keys
Observer public keys are aggregated into a single group element per quorum generation. A client holds one aggregate key; rotations produce a new one. Key material scales O(1) on the verifier side regardless of quorum size. - 04
Pairing-friendly curve
BLS12-381 was chosen over BN254 because it offers 128-bit security and is the industry standard (Ethereum consensus, Filecoin, Chainlink). Implementations (blst, @noble/curves) are audited and fast.
Observer categories
Six classes. No single class can carry the quorum.
The 12 seats are split across six categories so no single class — ground stations, SSA vendors, operators — can hit threshold alone. A cartel on one vector cannot co-opt the network.
Observer seat allocation · v1
- Ground stations
- 3 seats
KSAT, Viasat RTE, AWS Ground Station or equivalent. RF completion telemetry is their operating reality.
- SSA providers
- 2 seats
LeoLabs, Slingshot, NorthStar, Kayhan, or Privateer. Conjunction and orbital-state truth.
- Fleet operators
- 2 seats
Operators of major constellations attesting to their own telemetry. Diversity caps prevent self-attestation majorities.
- Academic consortia
- 1 seat
University radio-astronomy networks (e.g. LOFAR, SKA affiliates) under independent-observation MoUs.
- National regulators
- 1 seat
FCC, Ofcom, ITU-BR, or equivalent. Permissioned signature-only role — never a commercial position.
- Independent commercial
- 3 seats
Specialist firms contracted by Wavestar and the OIF for neutrality. Run periodic random audits of the other five categories.
Diversity rules
No single operator, no single region, no cartel.
- D1
≤ 2 seats per operator
A corporate group (parent plus subsidiaries) can hold at most two observer seats across all categories. Enforced at onboarding and verified at every quorum formation — violating quorums are automatically rejected. - D2
≤ 4 seats per region
Regions are defined as ITU coordination zones grouped by continent. No more than four seats can sit in a single region — ensuring geopolitical diversity even in the extreme case where one jurisdiction pressures its nationals. - D3
≤ 1 seat per category per operator
An operator can hold at most one ground-station seat, one SSA seat, etc. Prevents stacking within a single observer category to force a class majority. - D4
Rotation cadence
At minimum 10% of seats rotate quarterly. The OIF attestation committee schedules rotations to avoid clustering at Wavestar fiscal events.
Signature aggregation pipeline
Four stages, measured end-to-end in under 450ms.
The pipeline below runs on every settlement input. Each stage has an explicit timeout, an explicit retry policy, and a published latency target. No stage blocks on a single observer.
ascii
Wavestar ORCH -- attestation request for settlement input X
|
v
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Stage 1: FANOUT target: < 50 ms |
| - Canonicalise payload (RFC 8785 JCS) |
| - Hash SHA-256 -> challenge digest |
| - NATS publish attest.request.{X} to all 12 observers |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|
v
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Stage 2: INDEPENDENT SIGNING target: < 200 ms |
| - Observers compute their own evidence |
| - If evidence matches digest, sign with BLS12-381 share |
| - If mismatch, publish a signed DISSENT on attest.dissent|
| - Timeout on an observer after 250 ms |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|
v
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Stage 3: AGGREGATION target: < 120 ms |
| - Collect shares on attest.response.{X} |
| - As soon as >= 8 arrive, aggregate via BLS sum |
| - Reject duplicates, wrong-group points, mismatches |
| - Verify aggregate against aggregate public key |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|
v
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Stage 4: PUBLICATION target: < 80 ms |
| - Append to Trillian log as leaf (payload + agg sig) |
| - Record leaf index, return to ORCH |
| - Emit NATS attest.settled.{X} |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|
v
Wavestar ORCH -- clears the trade.
Counterparty receives verification bundle.
End-to-end target: p99 < 450 ms (measured: 420 ms Q1 2026)Slashing conditions
Equivocation, absenteeism, invalidity — each with a price.
Observers post a performance bond at onboarding. Violations trigger escrow deductions and, at a threshold, removal. The rulebook names the conditions explicitly; nothing is discretionary.
- Equivocation
- Sign two conflicting attestations at the same height
Fatal. 100% of bond slashed, immediate revocation, seat opens for a replacement.
- Invalid signature share
- Share fails verification against aggregate key
3 occurrences within 90 days: 25% of bond slashed and removal.
- Missed quorums
- Below 80% attendance over a rolling 30-day window
Formal review. 10% of bond slashed at the first breach; second breach triggers removal.
- Diversity violation
- Corporate restructure pushes category over cap
90-day grace period to divest. Non-compliance = removal, no slash if disclosed.
- Private key compromise
- Disclosed or detected exfiltration
No slash if disclosed proactively. Key rotation executed within 15 minutes of disclosure.
- Regulatory sanction
- OFAC / UK / EU sanction on the observer or a beneficial owner
Automatic suspension pending OIF review. Seat may be permanently revoked.
Signed evidence envelope
What an observer actually co-signs.
cbor/cose
COSE_Sign1 (observer signature share)
protected:
alg: "BLS12381G1_XMD:SHA-256_SSWU_RO_" (IETF draft-irtf-cfrg-bls)
kid: "did:orbit:observer:wavestar:leolabs-primary#key-2026-q2"
unprotected:
ctyp: "application/vnd.wavestar.attestation+cbor"
payload (CBOR, after RFC 8785 JCS canonicalisation):
attestationId: "att_01HXX..."
instrument: "DLM"
contract: "did:orbit:contract:wavestar:dlm-2026-04-22-1400z-..."
claim: "downlink_completed"
evidence:
bytes: 1_072_481_320
windowStart: "2026-04-22T14:00:00Z"
windowEnd: "2026-04-22T14:10:00Z"
station: "did:orbit:ground:fcc:ksat-svalbard-sg1"
satellite: "did:orbit:satellite:itu:usa-starlink-1043"
signalReport:
ebno: 14.2
modulation: "QPSK-1/2"
observerNotes: "Telemetry cross-matched with local doppler; nominal."
timestamp: "2026-04-22T14:10:03.412Z"
signature: 48 bytes (G1 curve point)
AGGREGATE (8-of-12)
aggregateSignature: 96 bytes (G2 curve point, BLS threshold aggregation)
signers: [ kid-0, kid-3, kid-4, kid-5, kid-6, kid-8, kid-10, kid-11 ]
committeeEpoch: "2026-q2"Charter principle
Every input to a settlement decision must be able to withstand an adversarial court subpoena.
Targets
The attestation network, by the numbers.
- Observers
- 0
- Threshold
- 8-of-12
- Byzantine tolerance
- f ≤ 4
- Quorum p99
- 420 ms
- Attestations / day
- 0
- Signature size
- 96 bytes
- Verify cost
- 1 pairing
- Rotation cadence
- 10% / quarter
At v1 steady-state clearing volume.
Observer seats
Seven seats open — Q3 2026.
Three ground stations, two SSA providers, and two independent commercial specialists. Onboarding requires a performance bond, a signing HSM, and an MoU committing to the diversity rules.