Imagine a vault that follows you everywhere, yet exists nowhere. When you need to open a specific door, it materializes instantly around you, unlocks it, and vanishes the moment you step through. There is no master key to steal because the vault itself is made of math, not metal. That is Tide.
Current identity stacks act as gatekeepers: they check a badge (Authentication), check a list (Authorization), and open a door. This model has a fatal flaw: the keys to the kingdom - whether passwords, tokens, or private keys - must eventually exist somewhere in a complete, readable form to be used. When that specific location is breached, the authority is stolen.
Tide fundamentally changes the physics of this problem.
In Tide, no keys are stored; Authority is managed. Tide operates as a "Network-Secure-Module" that programmatically manages keys as a menifestation of authority. It acts as an unimpeachable custodian where authority to act is cryptographically bound to a specific session context, but the keys are never exposed.
There is no single "root" to attack. There is no database of keys to dump. There is only an algorithmic consensus that grants momentary agency to a verified requestor.
Tide is structured to orchestrate the entire lifecycle of digital authority. The architecture operates across four distinct layers.
Before authority is granted, the requestor must prove the validity of their intent. This layer handles the provenance of the request—verifying that the entity (user or machine) attempting to engage with a secret has the right to do so in this specific context. It establishes the "who" and the "why" before the "how" is ever considered.
This is the core cryptographic engine. It manages the lifecycle of the authority keys: generation, validation, healing, maintenance, and disposal. Crucially, this layer ensures that keys are never revealed. They exist only as mathematical fragments distributed across the network nodes.
This is the kinetic layer of the stack. While other layers establish legitimacy and manage the keys, this layer is where authority is exercised. Here, the potential of a cryptographic key is expressed as action. Rather than simply retrieving a key to use it, it utilizes Secure Multi-Party Computation (sMPC) to perform operations via the decentralized fabric. The nodes collectively compute the result of a cryptographic operation without any single node ever knowing the input, the key, or the output.
Running orthogonal to the previous three, this layer provides the immutable audit trail and funding mechanism. It binds a verifiable digital payment voucher to every request. This guarantees identity (context-aware accountability), economics (fees for compute), and auditability for every action taken on the network.
Before authority is granted, the requestor must prove the validity of their intent. This layer handles the provenance of the request—verifying that the entity (user or machine) attempting to engage with a secret has the right to do so in this specific context. It establishes the "who" and the "why" before the "how" is ever considered.
This is the core cryptographic engine. It manages the lifecycle of the authority keys: generation, validation, healing, maintenance, and disposal. Crucially, this layer ensures that keys are never revealed. They exist only as mathematical fragments distributed across the network nodes.
This is the kinetic layer of the stack. While other layers establish legitimacy and manage the keys, this layer is where authority is exercised. Here, the potential of a cryptographic key is expressed as action. Rather than simply retrieving a key to use it, it utilizes Secure Multi-Party Computation (sMPC) to perform operations via the decentralized fabric. The nodes collectively compute the result of a cryptographic operation without any single node ever knowing the input, the key, or the output.
Running orthogonal to the previous three, this layer provides the immutable audit trail and funding mechanism. It binds a verifiable digital payment voucher to every request. This guarantees identity (context-aware accountability), economics (fees for compute), and auditability for every action taken on the network.
Tide redefines security by decoupling authority and delegating it strictly to a bound context. Tide functions as a single, closed-circuit process: from the moment a session begins to the moment data is accessed, the chain of custody never breaks.
Authority keys are born fragmented and exist only in a distributed state across the Tide Cybersecurity Fabric: a network of ORKs (Orchestrated Recluders of Keys), independent nodes run by different organizations.
Here is how the Fabric orchestrates the four distinct mechanisms into a unified flow:
The expression of Authority is defined by Tide as a specific cryptographic operation performed by the network. Below is how this authority is dispensed and applied across different contexts.
Tide unique security model is made possible because of Tide's own Ineffable Cryptography scheme: a paradigm where security is scalable but does not require scaling a security team. This architecture delivers three guarantees that traditional PKI cannot:
These concepts are actualized through ten specific cryptographic and algorithmic breakthroughs available in the Tide technology:
High-Grade Defense, Low-Code Implementation
Implementing "military-grade" security traditionally means hiring cryptographers and building complex key rotation ceremonies. Tide inverses this dynamic by encapsulating the complexity of Ineffable Cryptography into a streamlined Developer Experience that is designed to be invisible until you need it.
As a developer, Tide presents the following benefits:
The Tide Promise:
We believe that the highest form of security is one that doesn't get in your way. By decoupling Authority from Application Logic, Tide allows you to build platforms that are hermetic against attacks without the operational overhead.
If we were you, here are the answers to the questions we'd still be asking.
Not at all. In fact, Tide's architecture is designed so that you don't have to trust us or any single entity. The security model is based on decentralization and verifiable cryptographic guarantees, meaning that no single party, including Tide, has full control or access to your keys or data.
While some of the underlying cryptographic primitives (Shamir's Secret Sharing, sMPC, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Blind Signatures) have existed for decades, those were computationally impractical and existed in isolation, detached from practical use cases. Three things changed: (1) Network connectivity became acceptable requirement for business operations thanks to the XaaS models, (2) Computing power made threshold cryptography viable at scale, and (3) Tide proprietary redesign, optimizations, and consolidation under one scheme (Ineffable Cryptography) reduced the round-trips required for usable operations from minutes to microseconds.
Yes, there are trade-offs: (1) Latency - Some operations take 50-200ms instead of <10ms for local key operations, (2) Network dependency - You need online connectivity to get local access, (3) Complexity abstraction - While simple to integrate, debugging requires different tools since you can't inspect keys directly. However, these trade-offs are insignificant compared to the elimination of breach risk.
Traditional key management systems still have a master key somewhere that someone has full authority over - in an HSM, in memory during operations, or in a secure enclave. That's a single point of failure that is no longer just theoretical - rather a proven attack vector. Tide's keys literally never exist in whole form, not even for a microsecond.
The Tide Cybersecurity Fabric is decentralized across independent organizations globally that operate independanty of any single organization. For it to 'go down,' you'd need simultaneous failures of over 30% of the nodes you use. Unlike most SaaS/PaaS/IaaS providers that usually rely on a single infrastruture provider, Tide's decentralized nature provides a much higher degree of resilience.
Absolutely not. You can always off-board the Tide network by activating the Ragnarök Protocol that moves your authority from Tide nodes to your infrastructure that you control centrally (self-hosted or different provider).
Zero-Knowledge Operations. Each node mathematically verifies that you possess the correct authority without ever seeing what that authority is. It's like proving you're over 21 without showing your birthdate - the math guarantees the truth without revealing the secret.
They would need to compromise a vast majority of nodes (spread across different organizations, jurisdictions, and infrastructures) at the exact same millisecond, intercept the specific user's request, and reconstruct the shares before the session expires (seconds). The economic and practical cost of this attack exceeds nation-state capabilities for even a single user's data.
The core cryptographic protocols are formally verified and have been academically peer-reviewed. The implementation uses defense-in-depth: even if one layer failed, an attacker still wouldn't get usable key material. Additionally, the Secure Web Enclave offers a 'rehoming' ability to any other host if tampering is suspected, pulling fresh verified code from different sources.
Nodes are run by independent organizations with economic incentives to maintain security (reputation, liability, token stakes in some implementations). The protocol includes mutual verification - nodes check each other's work. Collusion would require coordinating across competitors, different legal jurisdictions, and would be cryptographically detectable.
No. While both use decentralization, Tide doesn't require consensus on a global ledger. There's no mining, no energy waste, and no public transaction history. It's pure cryptographic protocol, not a distributed database. Think of it as borrowing blockchain's decentralization philosophy without its overhead.
Tide's architecture is quantum-resistant by design. While current encryption might be broken by quantum computers, Tide can swap in quantum-resistant algorithms without changing the architecture. Also, it's important to note that quantum-resistant cryptography is still susceptible to private-key leakage - while Tide isn't.
Tide is the only solution to eliminate all points of failure by decentralizing trust. No single admin, organization, or infrastructure has full access to keys.
The taxonomy table above shows the full range - authentication, decryption, signing, delegation, governance, even verifiable randomness. Any operation that requires a private key can be executed through Tide without the key ever existing in whole form.
Yes. In fact, it exceeds most compliance requirements because sensitive data never exists in cleartext on your infrastructure. You maintain data sovereignty while achieving higher security than traditional HSM-based approaches. Audit logs are cryptographically verifiable without exposing the underlying secrets.
Still have technical (or other) questions? Talk to our cryptographers or read the docs.