aere-contracts/README.md

# aere-contracts

Solidity smart contracts for Aere Network (chain ID 2800) and their Hardhat test suites.

This repository is part of the Aere Network "verify yourself" core. The deployed contract
bytecode is already public on-chain (readable via `eth_getCode` and the block explorer), so
publishing the source here lets anyone read, compile, and re-test the exact logic that runs on
mainnet. Nothing in this repository can move funds or impersonate the network: there are no
private keys, no mnemonics, and no deployment credentials. Every network account is supplied at
runtime through environment variables (see `hardhat.config.js`).

## Scope, stated up front

Aere Network runs post-quantum signature verification natively on mainnet: Falcon-512 (`0x0AE1`),
Falcon-1024 (`0x0AE2`), ML-DSA-44 (`0x0AE3`), SLH-DSA-128s (`0x0AE4`) and SHAKE256 (`0x0AE5`)
have been live as precompiles since block 9,189,161. You can call them yourself against
`https://rpc.aere.network` without asking us for anything.

**Consensus on chain 2800 is classical secp256k1 ECDSA QBFT on every block, with a post-quantum
checkpoint every 32 blocks.** Since block 13,014,000 anchor blocks carry, under the block hash, a
certificate of validator Falcon-512 seals, and since 2026-08-14 a node rejects an anchor block with
fewer than three valid seals (f+1 of nine, not a quorum; eight or nine are carried in practice). That
checkpoint lives in the aere-node repository (patch 0003 and `anchor/`), not in this one: nothing in
this repository makes consensus post-quantum, and the chain is not "post-quantum consensus" without
that qualification (the per-block quorum claim published on 2026-08-15 was withdrawn on 2026-08-19).

Two further limits worth knowing before you judge anything else here:

- `0x0AE6` (ML-KEM-768) and `0x0AE7` (Falcon HashToPoint) are **testnet only**. They are not
  active on mainnet.
- The on-chain zero-knowledge verifiers are classical BN254. They are broken by Shor's algorithm
  like any other elliptic-curve construction, and we do not describe them as quantum-safe.

The network is operated by nine Foundation-run validators (f=2, commit quorum 6 of 9; seven until
2026-08-09), so its Nakamoto coefficient is effectively one today. That is a real limitation, it is on the roadmap, and it is not fixed by any
code in this repository.

## Layout

- `contracts/` the Solidity sources, grouped by domain (pqc, pqfinality, settlement, lending,
  governance, paymaster, oracle, mpc, zkverify, and more).
- `test/` the Hardhat test suites, including unit tests, fuzz/invariant/property tests, and the
  cryptographic known-answer test (KAT) vectors under `test/fixtures/` and `test/*.json`.
- `hardhat.config.js` the compiler and network configuration. Keys and RPC URLs are read from
  environment variables only; the sole literal mnemonic present is the well-known public Hardhat
  default (`test test ... junk`) used for local test signers.
- `package.json` the dependency manifest.

## Verify

```bash
npm ci            # installs the exact locked dependency tree
npm run compile
npm test
```

`npm run` lists every entry point this repository offers. Until 2026-08-03 that
list was empty, because `package.json` carried no `scripts` key at all: `npm run`
answered with zero lines and exit code 0, which reads as "this project has nothing
to run" beside 155 test files. The available entries are now:

| Command | What it runs |
| --- | --- |
| `npm run compile` | `hardhat compile` |
| `npm test` | `hardhat test`, the whole suite |
| `npm run test:pqc` | the Falcon, SPHINCS+ and ML-DSA known-answer tests only |
| `npm run coverage` | coverage over the economic-core cluster, the one scope we measure |
| `npm run clean` | `hardhat clean` |

These are entry points, not claims of a green result. Read the next paragraphs
before quoting anything from them.

**MEASURED 2026-08-03 against this published tree, on Node v24.14.1 and npm
11.11.0: `npm test` aborts before a single test runs.** `test/shutter-mempool-v2.test.js`
and `test/shutter-mempool-v3.test.js` both `require('../scripts/shutter-crypto')`,
and `scripts/` is one of the directories deliberately excluded from publication, so
Mocha fails to load and the run ends with `MODULE_NOT_FOUND`. Placing that one helper
back into `scripts/` makes the suite load and start executing normally, which is how
the cause was confirmed rather than guessed. `npm run test:pqc` is unaffected and
passed 101 tests in 32 seconds on the same tree. Until the helper is either published
or the two suites stop depending on it, treat the full-suite result from this
repository as NOT MEASURED, not as passing and not as failing.

Use `npm ci`, not `npm install`. `ci` installs the exact tree recorded in
`package-lock.json` and fails if the lockfile and `package.json` disagree, so
you are running against the same dependency versions we measured. `install` is
free to resolve newer versions and will quietly give you a different tree.

Step-by-step instructions with the expected output at each step, the measured
pass and coverage numbers, and the required tool versions are in **`REPRODUCE.md`
in the `aere-docs` repository**, not in this one. An earlier version of this
paragraph referred to `REPRODUCE.md` as though it sat beside this README, which
would have sent a first-time reader looking for a file that is not here.

**Read that document before quoting any number from this repository**, because
two of the four CI jobs are currently RED and it says so explicitly: the full
test suite does not complete on a 16 GB machine, and the whole-repository
coverage figure is NOT MEASURED. Note that the first of those two reasons is
the one observed on our internal tree, which still has `scripts/`. On this
published tree the full suite fails earlier and for the different reason given
above, so memory is not the explanation a reader here should accept. Any "99.8% coverage" figure ever associated
with this project was never produced by a coverage tool.

The same three commands run on every push through the CI pipeline, which is a
pair of files:

- `.gitea/workflows/ci.yml` runs on git.aere.network, the canonical host.
- `.github/workflows/ci.yml` runs on GitHub mirrors.

Gitea Actions scans both directories and prefers `.gitea/`; GitHub scans only
`.github/`. The two files are identical except for the `upload-artifact`
version, and each file's header explains why they are split and records which
jobs are currently passing and failing.

To reproduce against the live chain, point `AERE_RPC_URL` at the public RPC
(`https://rpc.aere.network`, chain ID 2800) and compare compiled bytecode to the on-chain code.
The full reproducibility manifest lives in the `aere-docs` repository (`REPRODUCE.md`).

## Following citations in this repository

Paths cited in this repository are written relative to the document that cites them, or relative to
a side-by-side checkout of the published Aere repositories, in which case they begin with a
repository name such as `aere-docs/REPRODUCE.md`. MEASURED on 2026-08-03, every cited path in this
repository resolves to a published file: `CITATIONS-UNRESOLVED.md` is the enforced list of the ones
that do not, and it currently has zero entries. It is generated by a check, not maintained by hand,
so it cannot silently fall behind.

## What is deliberately not here

Deployment scripts, deploy keys, `.env` files, infrastructure configuration, and business or
operations material are intentionally excluded. This repository is source plus tests only.

## License

MIT. See `LICENSE`.