Primer
This primer introduces the core cryptographic foundations of the dcipher network. These building blocks enable verifiable randomness, decentralized automation, and threshold-based cryptographic workflows across decentralized systems.
Threshold BLS Signatures
Threshold Boneh-Lynn-Shacham (BLS) signatures allow a group of entities (such as node operators, agents, or keyholders) to collectively create signatures on behalf of the group, without any single party ever holding the entire private key. Each participant holds a share of the secret and generates a partial signature on a message. When a threshold number of these partial signatures (t-of-n) are gathered, they can be combined to produce a single, verifiable group signature. This means that any qualifying subset of participants can act on behalf of the whole group to sign messages, enabling decentralized trust and fault tolerance.
Key properties:
- Compact: A single signature, regardless of the number of participants.
- Unbiased: Deterministic signing removes influence from signers.
- Verifiable: Publicly auditable against the committee's shared public key.
dcipher uses threshold BLS signatures to produce randomness beacons, attestations, and conditional decryption keys..
Distributed Key Generation (DKG)
Before any threshold signing can occur, a group must first generate a shared key without any one participant learning the full secret. This is done through Distributed Key Generation(DKG).
Currently, dcipher uses Pedersen’s DKG protocol:
- Each node acts as a dealer, distributing shares using verifiable secret sharing (VSS).
- Commitments are published to ensure shared integrity.
- At the end, each node holds a share of the secret, and a collective public key is generated.
This enables a trustless setup of committees, with no centralized key material or coordination.
Threshold Network
A threshold network is a decentralized coordination layer that goes beyond static committees by enabling continuous communication, incentivizing participation through tokens, and allowing dynamic formation and dissolution of t-of-n groups (committees) to perform cryptographic tasks such as randomness beacons and conditional encryption for the dcipher network. These operations occur without requiring every participant to act in every round of the signing process, improving performance while preserving liveness and decentralization.
Threshold networks also support modularity, allowing operators to serve multiple committees, workloads to vary in frequency or cost, and jobs to be negotiated via smart contracts.
Conditional Signing
Conditional signing in the dcipher network empowers committees to sign messages only when programmable conditions, which are defined by developers, are met. These conditions extend far beyond simple on-chain states or block heights; they can incorporate off-chain data, oracle feeds, custom plugins, or any logic that defines "truth" and "reality" in a decentralized context.
Conditions can include:
- On-chain states (contract variables, storage, etc.)
- Timestamps or block heights
- External oracle data (real-world events, off-chain computations)
- Custom plugins and developer-defined logic
This flexible design allows builders to create dynamic signing workflows that respond to real-world events, cryptographic proofs, or any source of decentralized trust.
- Blocklock encryption: Decryption only after a specified time or block height
- Event-driven automation: Sign only when a contract state changes
- Decentralized access control: Threshold approval to unlock content or execute transactions
At its core, conditional signing embodies dcipher’s programmable trust model, where developers craft their own trust anchors, ensuring signatures are verifiable, tamper-resistant, and deeply integrated with the evolving digital world.