What Cubane is designed to do

Development status: Being explored — Cubane is a blockchain platform under development that aims to let organisations process sensitive data while producing results others can verify; the design is being explored, and its public interface and support are not settled. An experimental implementation exists for internal protocol development, but in it confidentiality and proving features are simulated or switched off, so it provides no confidentiality protection. Nothing is publicly available for live use.

Before you read: About the Cubane developer documentation.

This page is the primary explanation of Cubane’s platform aim. It states the aim, describes the problem the aim responds to, points to the capability areas the aim implies — each with its own status label — sets out what Cubane is not, or not yet, and explains why all current work is experimental.

The intended aim

Cubane is a blockchain platform under development that aims to let organisations process sensitive data while producing results others can verify.

The aim is design intent. The design is being explored; its public interface and support are not settled. Read the aim as a description of what the platform is meant to make possible, not as a description of anything that runs today.

The aim says what is intended, not how it would be achieved. Design detail is not described in this documentation: topic pages explain user-visible behaviour — who takes part, what happens to a transaction or a job, who can see which data and what remains uncertain — rather than internal construction. Where a reader would expect technical reference, a notice says that further technical reference is not yet available.

The problem it responds to

Many workflows that depend on shared records run into a basic tension. Checking a result usually involves seeing the inputs that produced it: a reviewer recomputes a figure from the underlying records, a counterparty examines the data behind a claim, an oversight function inspects what was processed. Yet sensitive data should be seen only by those entitled to see it.

Organisations that handle commercially or personally sensitive records need both at once: confidentiality for the data, and confidence for whoever relies on the results. When the two pull in opposite directions, the familiar options are uncomfortable — disclose more than the data owner would like, or ask others to accept results they cannot check.

Cubane’s aim is a response to this tension. This documentation does not claim that the tension has been resolved, and it does not describe how a response would work. The intended properties are recorded as goals, together with their assumptions and open questions, on Problem statement and intended properties.

What the aim would let developers and organisations do

The aim implies several capability areas. Each has its own status label and a page that explains the capability, its boundaries and its open questions.

• Build applications that process sensitive data while producing results others can verify — Being explored. See Processing sensitive data with verifiable results.
• Let data owners decide who can see which data, including time-limited access for auditors — Being explored. See Sharing selected results with auditors and partners.
• Require several approvers for sensitive actions, and choose how the signing keys behind funds are held — for example by one party or by a group of parties — Being explored. See Organisation workflows with shared approval and custody choices.
• Run long-running confidential computations that could be tracked, cancelled and refunded — Being explored. See Confidential jobs: tracking, cancelling and retrieving results.
• Submit transactions and see their recorded results — Experimental implementation exists — internal prototype only; not released. See Transaction lifecycle: from submission to result.

The areas closest to the aim — confidential processing, owner-controlled visibility and results others can check — are all being explored. The Capability map lists every documented capability with its own label.

What Cubane is not, or not yet

• Not publicly available. There is no public network, released tool or service.
• Not a source of assurances. Confidentiality, security and correctness properties are goals, and the experimental implementation provides no confidentiality protection.
• Not described here in architectural terms. No overview of the platform’s internal design is published; topic pages describe user-visible behaviour only.
• Not positioned against other platforms. The documentation makes no comparisons with other platforms.
• Not a commitment. Capabilities may change, be deferred or be withdrawn, and no dates are given.
• Not a source of prices or economic terms. Fee concepts and their status are on Fees and cost estimates.

Why current work is experimental

An experimental implementation exists for protocol development and integration work; it is an early prototype. In it, confidentiality and proving features are simulated or switched off, so it provides no confidentiality protection, and several features of how the network agrees on results are simulated or not connected.

The capabilities at the heart of the aim — confidential processing and results others can check — are therefore not demonstrated by the prototype. They remain design and research work. What the prototype offers is internal evidence for its own limited scope, such as how transactions are submitted, validated and recorded; it is not evidence that the aim has been met, and it should not be relied on for security or production use.

For anyone evaluating Cubane, this has two consequences. A judgement of fit is a judgement about intent and design direction, not about a working system. And because maturity differs from capability to capability, a statement about one area says nothing about another: Development status: what exists today and what does not and the Capability map show each one.

Where to go next

• Application patterns: What you could build: intended application patterns.
• The user-level model of participants, transactions and jobs: System model: how Cubane is intended to work for its users.
• Research framing: Problem statement and intended properties.
• Current limits: Privacy and confidentiality: intent and current limits and Known limitations of the experimental prototype.

Assumptions, trust and limitations

• The aim and its properties are goals. Whether and how they are met depends on design, implementation and review work that is not yet published.
• Which results could be checked, by whom and under which assumptions is not yet specified publicly; Assumptions and open questions records the open questions.
• Even where data is processed confidentially, some information about activity would remain observable; see What remains observable.
• What is and is not claimed about compliance is set out on Compliance position and data-protection intent, not on this page.

Not yet available, and how this page will grow

Further technical reference is not yet available. If reviewed public material about the platform’s design or release plans is approved, this page would link to it. Approved public references, such as papers or specifications, would be listed once approved; none are listed yet.

What this page does not claim

This page does not claim:

• that Cubane, or any part of it, is available for use;
• that any confidentiality protection exists today;
• any performance, capacity or cost figure;
• any comparison with, or ranking against, other platforms.

Anything not stated here as available or assured should be treated as neither.

Related pages

• Capability map — every documented capability with its own status label.
• Processing sensitive data with verifiable results — the pattern that most directly expresses the aim.
• Privacy and confidentiality: intent and current limits — what confidentiality is intended to mean and what is simulated today.
• Problem statement and intended properties — the research framing of the aim, with assumptions.
• Development status: what exists today and what does not — current status in detail.
• What you could build: intended application patterns — intended application patterns and their boundaries.
• System model: how Cubane is intended to work for its users — the user-level model behind the aim.

Glossary

• Verifiable result
• Confidential computation
• Experimental implementation
• Selective disclosure
• Multi-party approval
• Confidential job

References

No approved public references yet.