Your data.
Your proof.
Your terms.
Barcus turns your datasets into verifiable on-chain assets — with time-limited, cryptographically enforced access control. Prove ownership, lease access, and earn from what you own.
Data ownership is broken.
You built the dataset — medical records, satellite imagery, AI training data, scientific archives. But two unsolved problems stop you from monetising it safely.
Barcus solves both with cryptographic proofs and code-enforced leases, not contracts or trust.
Proving you actually own it
Anyone can claim to own data. Barcus creates an on-chain, tamper-proof record of ownership — your dataset’s unique fingerprint, size, and owner address are a verifiable public fact.
Controlling who can read it
Once you hand over a file, you’ve lost control. Barcus issues time-limited access grants enforced by threshold cryptography — when the lease expires, access is revoked automatically. No chasing, no invoices.
From raw data to leased asset
A dataset moves through four stages on Barcus, each governed by cryptographic proofs — never by trust alone.
Register (Mint)
Encrypt your data, upload to IPFS, and publish a cryptographic commitment on-chain. A small PODO collateral is locked. Storage miners are automatically assigned.
Lease (Access Grant)
Set a price, duration, and threshold of PRE nodes. The buyer pays immediately — 95% to you, 5% to the processing validator. PRE nodes earn when decryption is confirmed.
Access
The buyer contacts a threshold of PRE nodes. They cooperate to transform the encryption key so only the buyer can open it. Your plaintext never leaves encrypted storage.
Expiry
When the lease expires, the PRE nodes reject further requests — the on-chain record has lapsed. No revocation action needed from you.
Six roles, independent trust
Barcus separates consensus, storage, access control, and monitoring into dedicated roles so each concern has its own accountability model.
Validators
Process transactions, propose blocks, and maintain the ledger. Validators deliberately never pin IPFS data — they see only cryptographic commitments, never dataset contents.
Storage Miners
Pin and serve encrypted datasets via IPFS. Pass regular random Proof of Retrievability audits — fail enough, and lose the bond. More miners means greater redundancy for every registered dataset.
PRE Nodes
Hold threshold key fragments for re-encrypting dataset access keys. No single PRE node can grant access alone — a quorum must cooperate, and no node ever sees your original key or raw data.
Availability Attesters
Independent watchdogs that randomly sample IPFS chunks from storage miners. When enough attesters report the same failure, the chain automatically penalties the miner — no human adjudication needed.
Observers
Full-state nodes that verify every transaction and maintain a complete ledger copy — but never vote or propose blocks. Ideal for block explorers, exchanges, and regulatory auditors.
Light Clients
Track only block headers — no full state database. Verify chain progress and submit transactions without running a full node. The foundation for mobile wallets, dApps, and data marketplace apps.
Why you don’t have to trust anyone
The system assumes any participant could be dishonest — and makes dishonesty unprofitable. Cryptographic proofs either pass or they don’t.
| Misbehavior | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Storage miner deletes data | Fails PoR audit · loses bond after 3 consecutive misses |
| Storage miner lies about having data | Merkle proof is cryptographically verifiable — can’t be faked |
| PRE node attempts unauthorized access grant | Detectable via on-chain lease record · bond slashed |
| Attester files false reports | Loses 1,000 PODO attester bond |
| Validator approves invalid transactions | Outvoted by honest majority · validator bond slashed |
| Buyer tries to use an expired lease | PRE nodes reject the request — lease expiry is on-chain |
Built for real data sovereignty
Not just a token. A purpose-built protocol that separates consensus, storage, and access control so each has its own accountability model.
Validator Blindness
Validators process only cryptographic commitments — CID hashes and Merkle roots. No validator ever sees dataset content, preserving privacy at the consensus layer.
Threshold Access Control
Key fragments are split across multiple PRE nodes. No single point of compromise can grant unauthorized access. The threshold is configurable per dataset.
EVM-Compatible
Deploy existing Solidity smart contracts seamlessly. Inheritance contracts, licensing dApps, and royalty distribution can all be built with standard Web3 tooling.
Content-Agnostic
Any dataset qualifies — personal records, scientific archives, enterprise compliance data, or confidential AI training sets. No restrictions on type or size.
ZK-Ready Architecture
Phase 5 integrates SNARK/STARK proof circuits for storage collateral and dataset uniqueness — moving from economic proof of availability to mathematical proof.
Public Without Exposure
Ownership and access facts are visible on-chain. Dataset contents are always encrypted. Observers and block explorers can audit activity without seeing a single byte of raw data.
Protocol phases
Four phases fully delivered. One in progress toward mainnet.
Identity & Attestation
Core consensus backbone, 6-role node architecture, secp256k1 identity separation (validator key vs. wallet key), chain-spec genesis configuration, 15-node devnet (11 validators, 2 observers, 2 light clients).
Storage Commitments & PoR
Storage miner registration and bonding, Merkle-tree-based Proof of Retrievability challenges, dataset assignment and replication, storage proof fee model, miner slashing.
Threshold PRE Infrastructure
PRE node registration, per-dataset key fragment distribution, threshold re-encryption protocol, lessee decryption acknowledgement and reward emission, lessee public key binding and verification.
Availability Attestation & Governance
Availability attester registration and bonding, dynamic slash threshold, on-chain governance (parameter changes, validator management), multisig treasury, comprehensive security audit and production hardening.
Zero-Knowledge Proofs & Mainnet
SNARK/STARK proof circuits for storage collateral and dataset uniqueness. Dedicated ZK Prover node role. Mainnet genesis configuration, tokenomics finalization, and third-party security audit.
Ready to own your data?
Join the PoDO Testnet and be among the first to register a dataset on Barcus.
Join the Testnet Read the whitepaper