Vaults

Various Ockam protocols depend on a variety of standard cryptographic primitives or building blocks. Depending on the environment, these building blocks may be provided by a software implementation or a cryptographically capable hardware component.

In order to support a variety of cryptographically capable hardware we maintain loose coupling between a protocol and how a specific building block is invoked in a specific hardware. This is achieved using an abstract Vault interface.

A concrete implementation of the Vault interface is called an Ockam Vault. Over time there will be many such implementations.

The Vault interface exposes functions for generating and using cryptographic keys, secure random numbers, key derivation, hashing, message authentication, digital signatures, Diffie-Hellman key exchange, authenticated encryption etc.

The precise design of the Vault interface is being discussed as part of Ockam Proposal OP-0004.