Aether: A Post-Quantum Hypergraph Network

[Oliver M. Pacaña Jr.]

Dear Cryptographers and Peer-to-Peer Researchers,

I have been working on a new protocol designed to secure the decentralized economy against the inevitable arrival of practical quantum computing, while simultaneously solving the scalability bottlenecks of legacy blockchains.

The core problem is simple: Existing digital cash relies on ECC, which is fatally vulnerable to Shor's Algorithm. The window to secure digital assets is closing.

I propose Aether, a Layer-1 protocol that is a mathematically secure settlement layer for the post-quantum era.

Aether synthesizes four key innovations:

• Post-Quantum Consensus: Transactions are signed using CRYSTALS-Dilithium (a NIST finalist lattice-based signature scheme), securing the network against both classical and quantum attacks.
• Infinite Scalability: A BlockDAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) topology is utilized instead of a linear chain, allowing for parallel block processing and high throughput.
• Useful Work Consensus (PoEC): Proof-of-Work is replaced with Proof of Evolving Compute (PoEC), directing computational power toward verifiable AI training via zkML proofs.
• Privacy: Absolute user privacy is guaranteed through Recursive zk-STARKs.

The full explaination is available in the Whitepaper below.

The open-source implementation and the Proteus Testnet will be announced in thenext  coming months.

Thank you,

O.M.P.J