Robotic Attested Verifiable Evidence Network
An open protocol that gives every robot a cryptographic flight recorder. Offline-first. Post-quantum ready. Built for the machines operating where no one is watching.
// The problem
Drones survey coastlines. Robots inspect pipelines. Autonomous vessels collect ocean data. They make decisions, take actions, and produce records, but none of it is independently verifiable.
When an incident occurs, when a measurement is contested, when an insurer needs proof: there is no open standard for tamper-evident, cryptographically signed evidence from autonomous machines.
RAVEN fills that gap.
// Core properties
Interchangeable cipher suite registry. Classical, hybrid, or pure post-quantum signatures. Swap algorithms without breaking the protocol. Evidence signed today stays verifiable for decades.
Robots keep producing signed, chain-linked evidence while disconnected for days or weeks. No cloud dependency. No server required. The log lives on the machine.
Four compliance levels (L0-L3) let deployments scale guarantees to operational reality. From a lone sensor to a witnessed, anchored fleet.
Runs on anything from constrained MCUs with secure elements to embedded Linux SBCs. No vendor lock-in. No proprietary silicon.
Robots in proximity cross-attest each other's state. Tampering becomes evident through inconsistency across independent logs.
Evidence can be anchored to public substrates for global timestamping. Bitcoin, Ethereum, transparent logs, or none at all. Your deployment, your choice.
// Protocol flow
The robot signs every event with its private key and appends it to a local hash chain. Deterministic CBOR serialization ensures byte-identical output across implementations.
When robots encounter peers, they exchange cryptographic attestations. Each signs a statement about the other's latest state, creating independent proof that survives unilateral tampering.
When connectivity allows, Merkle roots can be published to public substrates for globally verifiable timestamping. Optional, not required. The evidence stands on its own.
The verification procedure is open and deterministic. RAVEN provides reference tooling, but anyone can build their own verifier. Same inputs, same output, no gatekeeping.
// Compliance levels
Higher levels strictly include all lower-level guarantees. Every deployment picks the level that matches its operational context.
Signed events with local hash chain. No external dependencies. The minimum viable cryptographic record.
Peer robots cross-attest each other's logs. Tampering becomes evident through inter-robot inconsistency.
Merkle roots published to public substrates. Globally verifiable timestamps that no party can revoke.
Post-quantum or hybrid cipher suites. Evidence remains cryptographically opposable against future quantum adversaries.
// Cryptographic agility
Cryptography evolves. Algorithms get broken, standards get updated, new threats emerge. Most protocols lock you into the primitives they shipped with. RAVEN doesn't.
New cipher suites can be added through specification revisions without breaking any existing deployment. Robots using classical signatures keep working while others upgrade to post-quantum.
Every event declares its own cipher suite. A single log can contain events signed with different algorithms. No coordinated fleet-wide migration required.
The v1-HYBRID suite combines Ed25519 with ML-DSA-44 in a dual signature. If one algorithm falls, the other still holds. Belt and suspenders, not a bet on one horse.
// Cipher suite registry
Built on NIST-standardized primitives. No custom cryptography. Every algorithm is published, reviewed, and battle-tested.
| Suite | Signature | Hash | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| v1-CLASSIC | ECDSA P-256 / Ed25519 | SHA-256 | Active |
| v1-HYBRID | Ed25519 + ML-DSA-44 | SHA-256 | v0.5 |
| v1-PQ | ML-DSA-44 (FIPS 204) | SHA3-256 | v0.5 |
| v1-COMPACT-PQ | FN-DSA (Falcon-512) | SHA-256 | Eval |
// Applications
Autonomous fleet underwriting requires independent, tamper-evident incident attribution. RAVEN provides the evidence layer insurers can trust.
Contested measurements lose legal weight without verifiable provenance. Cryptographic signatures turn sensor data into admissible evidence.
Marine, agricultural, and ecosystem carbon projects need auditable measurement, reporting, and verification. RAVEN makes MRV data independently verifiable.
The EU AI Act and emerging legislation put autonomous systems in regulatory scope. Verifiable logs provide the accountability trail regulators demand.
Incident reconstruction depends on tamper-evident logs. RAVEN gives investigators evidence they can trust was not modified after the fact.
Autonomous research platforms in remote environments produce data that must be reproducible and attributable. Cryptographic provenance ensures it.
// First reference deployment
Mediterranean Sea // Autonomous USVs
Small Thing operates autonomous marine surface vehicles collecting microplastics in the Mediterranean. As the first reference deployment, these vessels produce publicly auditable evidence under RAVEN, validating the protocol in real operational conditions.
The specification and the deployment evolve together. Real salt, real waves, real constraints.
small-thing.com →// Open specification
RAVEN is Apache 2.0 licensed. The specification is open for review by the cryptographic engineering, autonomous robotics, and standards communities. No permission required.