# Phantom Secrets™ Architecture

> How Lokblok eliminates the stored private key.

## The Problem

Every key-based breach — from custodian compromises to enterprise data theft — has the same root cause: a private key existed somewhere it could be stolen, copied, or coerced. Conventional defences (encryption at rest, HSMs, key rotation, access controls) all assume the key must continue to exist. They protect the target rather than removing it.

## The Lokblok Approach

Phantom Secrets™ removes the stored key from the architecture entirely. The protocol composes four well-established cryptographic primitives:

1. **Threshold cryptography** — the private key is split into N shares. M of N shares are required to reconstruct it. Shares alone reveal nothing.
2. **Hardware-bound reconstruction** — shares are combined only inside a certified HSM, secure element, or equivalent. The reconstructed key never exists outside hardware.
3. **Policy engine** — reconstruction proceeds only when identity, context, and quorum policies are satisfied. Policies are cryptographically enforced, not procedurally enforced.
4. **Ephemeral lifecycle** — the reconstructed key is used for a single cryptographic operation (sign, decrypt, authenticate) and is destroyed before the hardware boundary is exited.

## What Persists

- **Public material** — public keys, addresses, certificates, audit logs.
- **Regen Tokens** — public-data tokens used to regenerate distributed shares. They contain no secret material.
- **Policy and identity bindings** — describing what conditions must be met before reconstruction is permitted.

## What Does Not Persist

- The private key, in any form, at any layer.
- Any single share large enough to reconstruct the key.
- Any escrow, backup, recovery key, or administrative override.

## Algorithm Agility

The protocol is algorithm-agnostic. ECC, RSA, AES, secp256k1, Ed25519 today; CRYSTALS-Kyber, SABER, NTRU and other post-quantum schemes can be substituted without architectural rewrite. Harvest-now-decrypt-later attacks find nothing to harvest because nothing is stored.

## Deployment Surfaces

Phantom Secrets™ runs inside Lokblok's Toughkey HSM, partner HSMs, telecom SIM/eUICC, mobile secure enclaves, and qualified cloud HSMs. The same protocol semantics apply on every surface.

## Related

- Phantom Secrets™ product: /api/md/products/phantom-secrets
- Toughkey HSM: /api/md/products/toughkey
- Quantum resistance: /api/md/features/quantum-resistance
- Patents: /api/md/patents