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aere-research

Formal verification models, post-quantum cryptography reference implementations, known-answer tests (KATs), and research specifications for Aere Network.

This repository is the "prove it yourself" half of the Aere Network verify-yourself core. It lets a third party re-run the machine-checked proofs, re-derive the cryptographic reference vectors, and read the research that underpins the protocol, without trusting any claim on faith.

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is not "post-quantum consensus" without that qualification (the per-block quorum claim published on 2026-08-15 was withdrawn on 2026-08-19).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.

Two more limits, both of which cut against claims made in this repository:

  • Some citations point at files we did not publish, and you cannot open those. MEASURED 2026-08-11: 101 distinct cited paths in this repository do not resolve to any published file. All 101 are listed, with the documents that cite them, in CITATIONS-UNRESOLVED.md, and that list is enforced by a check rather than maintained by hand. A claim supported only by such a path is our assertion, not something you can independently check. Citations that DO resolve are written relative to a side-by-side checkout of the Aere repositories, so they begin with a repository name. See the fuller note in the aere-docs README.
  • AERE is not deflationary today. The burn mechanism is live and immutable, and it has burned approximately 0.137 AERE in total against a 2.8 billion fixed supply, because the burn is a percentage of validator coinbase revenue and that revenue is currently zero. The percentages in research/specs/spec-flywheel-economics.md are conditional rates on future revenue, not descriptions of present token destruction. Check it yourself with one eth_getBalance call against 0x696afDF4f814e6Fd6aa45CE14C498ed9375fB2c6.

Layout

  • formal-consensus/ Z3 / SMT models of consensus and contract safety properties (30 Python models plus a Quint spec FalconQuorum.qnt), driven by run_consensus_verification.py. These cover QBFT safety and liveness, the money-contract invariants, and a PROPOSED hybrid dual-quorum activation that is modelled research and is NOT running on chain 2800, and the invariants. CONSENSUS-VERIFICATION-2026-07-12.md documents the results.
  • pq-stark/ reference implementations and self-tests for the STARK verifier port: BabyBear field, Poseidon2, MMCS, FRI, the Fiat-Shamir challenger, and AIR quotient logic. Each component ships a Python reference, a JavaScript (.mjs) reference, a Java self-test, ground-truth JSON vectors, and a spec. The *-extractor/ directories are small Rust reference extractors (source only). This is reference and test material, not key material.
  • precompiles/ Java sources for the post-quantum EVM precompiles (ML-KEM-768, Falcon HashToPoint, SP1 STARK verifier).
  • kat/ and vectors/ NIST ACVP and Falcon known-answer test vectors and their generators.
  • pq-finality-circuit/ XMSS verify-core reference (Rust source) for the post-quantum finality circuit.
  • bench/ and results/ benchmark harness and recorded KAT / benchmark result JSON.
  • aips/ the Aere Improvement Proposal process and the accepted AIPs.
  • research/ research notes and long-form specifications (research/specs/).

Verify

The formal models run with Python 3 and z3:

cd formal-consensus
python run_consensus_verification.py

The STARK references are cross-checked against their ground-truth vectors; see each spec-*.md and the test_*.py files. Full commands and expected outputs are in the aere-docs repository (REPRODUCE.md).

What is deliberately not here

No private keys, no validator or Foundation key material, no infrastructure hostnames or credentials. Heavy prover runs must be executed on a throwaway non-infrastructure machine, never on production infrastructure.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.