mirror of https://github.com/nucypher/nucypher.git
121 lines
6.3 KiB
Markdown
121 lines
6.3 KiB
Markdown
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*A decentralized cryptological network offering accessible, intuitive, and extensible runtimes and interfaces for secrets management and dynamic access control.*
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[](https://pypi.org/project/nucypher/)
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[](https://pypi.org/project/nucypher/)
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[](https://codecov.io/gh/nucypher/nucypher)
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[](https://circleci.com/gh/nucypher/nucypher/tree/main)
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[](https://discord.gg/7rmXa3S)
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[](https://nucypher.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
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[](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html)
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----
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The NuCypher network provides accessible, intuitive, and extensible runtimes and interfaces
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for secrets management and dynamic access control.
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* Accessible - The network is permissionless and censorship-resistant.
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There are no gate-keepers and anyone can use it.
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* Intuitive - The network leverages the classic cryptological narrative of Alice and Bob
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(with additional characters where appropriate). This character-based narrative permeates the code-base and helps
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developers write safe, misuse-resistant code.
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* Extensible - The network currently supports proxy re-encryption but can be extended to provide support for other cryptographic primitives.
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Access permissions are baked into the underlying encryption,
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and access can only be explicitly granted by the data owner via sharing policies.
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Consequently, the data owner has ultimate control over access to their data.
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At no point is the data decrypted nor can the underlying private keys be
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determined by the NuCypher network.
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Under the hood, the NuCypher network uses the [Umbral](https://github.com/nucypher/pyUmbral)
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threshold proxy re-encryption scheme to provide cryptographic access control.
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# How does NuCypher work?
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01. Alice, the data owner, grants access to her encrypted data to
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anyone she wants by creating a policy and uploading it to
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the NuCypher network.
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02. A group of Ursulas, which are nodes on the NuCypher network,
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receive information about the policy, called a PolicyArrangement that include
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a re-encryption key share. The Ursulas stand ready to re-encrypt data in exchange for payment
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in fees and token rewards. Thanks to the use of proxy re-encryption,
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Ursulas and the storage layer never have access to Alice's plaintext data.
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03. Each policy created by Alice has an associated encryption key, which can be used
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by any entity (Enrico) to encrypt data on Alice's behalf.
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This entity could be an IoT device in her car, a collaborator assigned
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the task of writing data to her policy, or even a third-party creating
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data that belongs to her – for example, a lab analyzing medical tests.
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The resulting encrypted data can be uploaded to IPFS, Swarm, S3,
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or any other storage layer.
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04. Bob, a data recipient, obtains the encrypted data from the storage layer and sends an access request
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to the NuCypher network. If the policy is satisfied, the data is re-encrypted to his public key
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and he can decrypt it with his private key.
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05. Ursulas earn fees and token rewards for performing
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re-encryption operations.
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More detailed information:
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- Documentation https://docs.nucypher.com/
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- Website https://www.nucypher.com/
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# Whitepapers
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### Network
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[*"NuCypher - A proxy re-encryption network to empower privacy in decentralized systems"*](https://github.com/nucypher/whitepaper/blob/master/whitepaper.pdf)
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*by Michael Egorov, David Nuñez, and MacLane Wilkison - NuCypher*
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### Economics
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[*"NuCypher - Staking Protocol & Economics"*](https://github.com/nucypher/whitepaper/blob/master/economics/staking_protocol/NuCypher_Staking_Protocol_Economics.pdf)
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*by Michael Egorov, MacLane Wilkison, Arjun Hassard - NuCypher*
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[*"NuCypher - Pricing Protocol & Economics"*](https://github.com/nucypher/whitepaper/blob/master/economics/pricing_protocol/NuCypher_Network__Pricing_Protocol_Economics.pdf)
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*by Arjun Hassard - NuCypher*
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### Cryptography
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[*"Umbral: A Threshold Proxy Re-Encryption Scheme"*](https://github.com/nucypher/umbral-doc/blob/master/umbral-doc.pdf)
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*by David Nuñez*
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# Getting Involved
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NuCypher is a community-driven project and we're very open to outside contributions.
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All our development discussions happen in our [Discord server](https://discord.gg/7rmXa3S), where we're happy to answer technical questions, discuss feature requests,
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and accept bug reports.
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If you're interested in contributing code, please check out our [Contribution Guide](https://docs.nucypher.com/en/latest/support/contribution.html)
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and browse our [Open Issues](https://github.com/nucypher/nucypher/issues) for potential areas to contribute.
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Get up and running quickly by using our [docker development setup](dev/docker/README.md)
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# Security
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If you identify vulnerabilities with _any_ nucypher code, please email security@nucypher.com with relevant information to your findings.
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We will work with researchers to coordinate vulnerability disclosure between our stakers, partners, and users to ensure successful mitigation of vulnerabilities.
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Throughout the reporting process, we expect researchers to honor an embargo period that may vary depending on the severity of the disclosure.
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This ensures that we have the opportunity to fix any issues, identify further issues (if any), and inform our users.
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Sometimes vulnerabilities are of a more sensitive nature and require extra precautions.
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We are happy to work together to use a more secure medium, such as Signal.
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Email security@nucypher.com and we will coordinate a communication channel that we're both comfortable with.
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A great place to begin your research is by working on our testnet.
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Please see our [documentation](https://docs.nucypher.com) to get started.
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We ask that you please respect testnet machines and their owners.
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If you find a vulnerability that you suspect has given you access to a machine against the owner's permission, stop what you're doing and immediately email security@nucypher.com.
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