Known limitations of the experimental prototype
Development status: Experimental implementation exists — An experimental implementation exists for internal protocol development and integration work; it is an early prototype, is not a release and must not be relied on for security or production use, and this page lists its documented limitations. Its confidentiality and proving features are simulated or switched off, finality is not connected, crash safety of saved state has not been established, no access-controlled data or encrypted-data availability is provided, and no independent audit results are published. Nothing is publicly available for live use.
Before you read: Development status: what exists today and what does not.
Which features are simulated, inactive or unproven in the experimental prototype? This is the primary limitations list for the documentation; Development status: what exists today and what does not summarises it and links here. Each limitation is stated in plain words, grouped by area and followed by what it means for you. No internal test results, defect lists or reasons are given.
How to read this list
- It describes the prototype, not the design. The list describes the internal experimental implementation as of this page’s date. The intended design is described on each capability’s own page.
- Effects, not causes. Each entry states what is affected and what it means for readers; reasons and internal test results are not given.
- Absence is not evidence. Absence from the list does not mean that something works. Anything not described as available should be treated as unavailable.
- Changes are dated. Changes to the list are recorded in the Documentation change log.
Table: known limitations by area — the limitation, what it means for you and where to read more.
| Area | Limitation | What it means for you | Read more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confidentiality and proving | Simulated or switched off; no confidentiality protection; no access-controlled data; no encrypted-data availability | Outputs that look encrypted or proven are not evidence; never put sensitive data into experimental software | Confidential computation |
| Agreement and finality | Finality not connected; nothing is reported as final | Treat no recorded result as final or irreversible | Agreement and finality status |
| Economics and participation | Fee calculator charges nothing; no staking; no penalties enforced | Nothing indicates future costs, terms or conditions | Fees and cost estimates |
| State and recovery | Crash safety not established; which state is kept and restored not documented; no production procedures | Do not rely on state surviving, being recoverable or being complete | State persistence, snapshots and recovery |
| Assurance | No independent audit results; no resilience or recovery measurements | Not evidence of security, resilience or performance | Security assurance status and reporting problems |
| Availability | Internal, not a release; no public network, tool, SDK, wallet or faucet | Nothing can be used publicly today | Networks and environments |
Confidentiality and proving
- Encrypted-computation interfaces exist only as a simulation; no real encrypted computation is performed. See Confidential computation.
- Confidentiality and proving features are simulated or switched off, so the prototype provides no confidentiality protection.
- No encrypted or access-controlled data is provided; visibility controls are being explored. See Visibility controls and selective disclosure.
- Keeping encrypted data available is not provided. See Keeping encrypted data available.
- A prototype library of privacy-accounting, access-control and tamper-evident logging components exists for internal testing. Several of its protections are simulated. See Privacy-protection building blocks in the experimental prototype.
What this means: outputs that look encrypted or proven are not evidence of protection, and sensitive data must never be put into experimental software.
Agreement and finality
- An experimental finality status query exists, but it reports nothing as final because the finality component is not yet connected. See Agreement and finality status, which also gives the status of how the network is intended to agree on results.
- A result recorded by the prototype is recorded, not final.
What this means: no recorded result should be treated as final or irreversible.
Economics and participation
- An experimental fee calculator exists, but it charges nothing. See Fees and cost estimates.
- No staking operates on any network. See Staking and validator participation.
- No penalties are enforced on any network; an experimental penalty library exists internally. See Penalties for misbehaviour.
What this means: nothing about the prototype’s economic behaviour indicates future costs, terms or conditions.
State and recovery
- Keeping node state across restarts exists only in experimental form. Its crash safety has not been established, and which state is kept and restored is not documented. See State persistence, snapshots and recovery.
- Production deployment, backup and recovery procedures are not yet specified or published. See Deployment, backup and recovery: what operators would plan for.
What this means: do not rely on any experimental state surviving an unplanned stop, being recoverable or being complete.
Assurance
- No independent audit results are published.
- No resilience or recovery measurements are published; such activities are planned or at an early preparation stage. See Security assurance status and reporting problems.
What this means: experimental code and its behaviour are not evidence of security, resilience or performance, and should not be cited as such.
Availability
- The experimental implementation is internal and is not a release.
- There is no public network and no publicly released tool, SDK or wallet. See Networks and environments and Tools, SDKs and wallet availability.
- Experimental onboarding, operations and simulation tooling exists for internal testing only.
- An experimental wallet prototype exists for local testing; it is not released and is not a supported product.
- An experimental component for distributing test funds exists for internal testing; no public faucet is available.
What this means: nothing described in this documentation can be used publicly today.
What these limitations mean for you
- Evaluating developers: judge fit on the intended capabilities and their labels, not on prototype behaviour.
- Developers preparing applications, tools or wallets: design against documented concepts, use only synthetic data and test keys, and expect behaviour to change.
- Researchers and assurance readers: treat every security, confidentiality and correctness property as a goal until published evidence exists.
- Operators and organisations: do not plan procedures or commitments around experimental tooling.
Assumptions, trust and limitations
- The list covers documented limitations only; undocumented behaviour should not be assumed to work.
- Limitations are stated at capability level. No internal defect lists, test results or reasons are published.
- The trust you would place in each participant once a network exists is described separately on Trust assumptions and responsibilities by participant.
Not yet available, and how this page will grow
When a capability changes status, its entry would be updated with the date and the change recorded in the Documentation change log. Once a supported release exists, a separate list of that release’s known limitations would accompany it, with its version identity. Further technical reference is not yet available.
What this page does not claim
This page does not claim:
- any confidentiality, finality, durability, security or availability for the experimental implementation;
- any audit.
Anything not stated here as available should be treated as unavailable.
Related pages
- Development status: what exists today and what does not — the status hub that summarises this list.
- Agreement and finality status — why nothing is reported as final.
- Confidential computation — the simulated encrypted computation.
- Visibility controls and selective disclosure — intended controls over who sees data; none in the prototype.
- State persistence, snapshots and recovery — saving and restoring state, with crash safety not established.
- Keeping encrypted data available — an intended capability that is not provided.
- Security assurance status and reporting problems — no published audits or measurements.
Glossary
- Experimental implementation
- Simulation
- Confidentiality
- Finality
- Recorded
- Crash safety
- Data availability
- Faucet
- Independent audit
References
No approved public references yet.
