Technology & patent.
SciPHR's provisional patent describes a system and method for zero-knowledge blockchain identity management using NFT-encapsulated seeds with hardware-enforced encryption and DID authentication. The core idea: put a backup of a wallet's secret somewhere completely public, and still make it openable only by the owner's own hardware, while the ledger itself enforces who may rotate and recover the account.
Scope & status
This page explains what the invention does and why, at a conceptual level. The exact claim language lives in the filing itself, and none of this is legal advice. The filing is provisional ("Patent Pending"). The shipping architecture is V5: a fully self-custodial design where keys are generated and held on the user's device and the master key is backed up as an encrypted envelope, described below.
Three ideas that only work together.
Each piece below exists in the world on its own. SciPHR's contribution is the way they combine into a single, coherent identity system, an encrypted secret you can publish, decryption gated by verifiable hardware, and a clean split between "who may ask" and "how it's sealed."
Zero-knowledge to operators
The combination yields a system where the operator, SciPHR, holds no key that can open your backup or sign as you, and the keys are generated and kept on your own device. The master key is reconstructed only on your device, only for the instant of a signature, then wiped. No persistent knowledge of the key exists anywhere in SciPHR's infrastructure.
The system, in the brand.
The provisional filing includes black-and-white system drawings. Here they are, redrawn to the current V5 architecture, same structure, legible at a glance.
The protected concepts.
A conceptual description of the inventive ideas the provisional application sets out.
- Encrypting a backup of the wallet's master key and anchoring it via a blockchain NFT as a portable, tamper-evident on-chain reference.
- Sealing that backup so that no key capable of opening it is ever transmitted to, or stored by, the operator alongside the sciphrtext.
- Confining the ability to open the backup to the owner's own device hardware and a live biometric.
- Authenticating devices through on-chain DID documents holding hardware-born public keys, distinct from the backup system.
- Generating and using the wallet keys only on the user's device, reconstructing the master key transiently for the instant of a signature.
- Enabling key-free multi-device access and recovery through on-chain key rotation, where only a valid on-chain signature, or a signer-list quorum, can modify or re-key the identity.
Why we built it this way.
Verifiable by design
The backend holds no key that can sign or decrypt. Security rests on auditable code and the ledger's own signature checks, so anyone can confirm how custody works by reading the code.
Standard & audited
Ed25519, AES-256-GCM, Argon2id, W3C DID, XLS-40, XLS-20: audited, widely-reviewed primitives. SciPHR's contribution is the architecture that combines them, and every cryptographic primitive here is a public standard.
Public by default
Security comes from encryption. The backup envelope lives on public, content-addressed storage because its safety holds even when anyone can find it, since the sciphrtext is useless without the owner's keys.
Separation of powers
Custody lives on your device; recovery lives on the ledger. No single component, and no SciPHR co-signer alone, can both hold a key and move funds.
Standards & compliance posture
The architecture rests on NIST-approved primitives, AES-256-GCM and Ed25519, with Argon2id (per OWASP) for recovery-code derivation, device-bound keys in the iOS Secure Enclave and Keychain, optional Apple Advanced Data Protection for end-to-end-encrypted backup, and GDPR Article 32 technical measures. Custody is described precisely as self-custodial / non-custodial: under the applicable control test, an operator that cannot sign or decrypt holds no custody.
On the record.
The provisional was filed on the original encryption foundation; the shipping V5 architecture realizes the same invention as a fully self-custodial design, an NFT-anchored encrypted backup of a device-held master key, with DID authentication and XRPL-native recovery.