Solution Overview

Core Principles

1. Client-Side Encryption

All encryption and decryption happens in the user's browser or application. The server only ever sees encrypted ciphertext. Users control their keys through:

• Password-derived keys (PBKDF2 with 100,000 iterations)

• Hardware wallet integration (Ledger, Trezor)

• Solana wallet signatures (decentralized key management)

2. Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Users can prove properties about their data without revealing the data itself:

• "This dataset passed schema validation"

• "This file is under 100MB"

• "This document was created before date X"

• "This data satisfies condition Y"

3. Hybrid Storage

ZKFile uses a multi-layered storage approach:

• IPFS: Content-addressed, decentralized primary storage

• Cloud Backup: Encrypted redundancy on AWS S3/Cloudflare R2

• Blockchain Metadata: Immutable records on Solana

4. Cryptographic Access Control

Access permissions are managed through digital signatures, not centralized databases:

• Time-locked access grants

• Usage-limited sharing

• Revocable permissions

• Audit trails