Minerva · Layer 1
Minerva is a mineable Layer 1 with EVM smart contracts. Every account is a smart account controlled by an ML-DSA-65 key. The node verifies that signature for every transaction, at pool admission and again at block validation. There are no ECDSA accounts: mining rewards, faucets, relayers and users all operate from post-quantum accounts.
Technology
Account model
A Minerva account is a contract at a CREATE2-derived address. The key that may authorize it is recorded on-chain and can be replaced; consensus enforces the current record.
01 · Authorize
The node reads the account's control record (key commitment, algorithm, policy version) from the Account Control Registry and verifies the ML-DSA-65 signature against it before gas is charged. A transaction that fails this check is invalid in the pool and in a block.
Minerva account
0x7D3488118952dD7A7d087Ff7845151fd3C1A5829
02 · Rotate
rotatePQKey is signed by the current key and writes the new key commitment and an incremented policy version to the registry. The change is effective from the block that includes it. The address does not change; the previous key is rejected from that block on.
Minerva account
0x7D3488118952dD7A7d087Ff7845151fd3C1A5829
03 · Recover
Recovery is a rotation performed with a key restored from the Recovery Kit: a new key commitment, a new policy version, the same address. Policy-based recovery with guardians is specified and not yet implemented.
Minerva account
0x7D3488118952dD7A7d087Ff7845151fd3C1A5829
Same address, new Control Key.
Rotation changes which key may authorize the account. Funds, contract state and the address itself are unaffected.
Sample data. The rule shown, a rotated-out key rejected once the new policy version is in force, is implemented in the node and verified on the devnet; see Core v1 for the test names and their scope.
Consensus
The signature check is a consensus rule, not a wallet or RPC feature. It runs at pool admission and again when a block is imported, so a miner cannot include an unauthorized transaction by bypassing the pool.
Builds a MinervaPQTxV1 envelope and signs its hash with the account's ML-DSA-65 key under the constant context.
Type 0x4D. Carries the account, the public key, the algorithm, the policy version and the signature; about 5.4 KB.
Signature verified, account binding checked, control record read from the registry. Admission to the pool only if all three hold.
The same checks run when a block is imported. A block carrying an invalid native transaction is invalid itself.
The account contract executes with the authorizing key available through MINERVA_TX_CONTEXT, so device-key scopes are enforced in-contract.
Adversarial case
After the native-only activation, a block is invalid if it contains any transaction that is not type 0x4D, or a native transaction whose signature, account binding or control record fails. Validation is a consensus rule in chain configuration; no node setting relaxes it.
Unit tests cover the shared precheck (rotated-out keys, wrong chain, wrong account binding, ECDSA signers) and pool admission for legacy types; live devnet and testnet nodes refuse non-native submissions. A dedicated block-import test for the invalid-authorization case is still pending, which is why block validation is listed as implemented rather than tested.
FIPS 204 specifies ML-DSA. Using a standardised algorithm does not by itself show that the transaction, recovery and block-validation integration is correct; the tests listed on the Core v1 page are the evidence, within their stated scope. NIST FIPS 204
Verification status
Each verification area carries a status, the tests behind it and the scope those tests cover. Tested version minerva-geth 1.12.22 (CoreGeth fork), commit e561109, 2026-10-23.
Full evidence page| Area | Status | |
|---|---|---|
| Authorization coverage | LOCALLY TESTED | Devnet unit tests and live smokes; public testnet by wallet acceptance from one operator machine. |
| Block validation | IMPLEMENTED | The rule lives in the state processor and block validator; its precheck is unit-tested; block-import tests are pending. |
| Control Key rotation | LOCALLY TESTED | Devnet unit tests and a live rotation smoke; wallet rotation acceptance on devnet. |
| Recovery and permissions | LOCALLY TESTED | Device keys: unit, Foundry and live smoke. Recovery: encrypted Recovery Kit tested; policy-based recovery not built. |
| Replay protection | LOCALLY TESTED | Unit tests in Go and TypeScript; devnet smokes cover the nonce path. |
| ML-DSA integration | LOCALLY TESTED | Precompile unit tests; cross-implementation agreement in every smoke (wallet signs with @noble/post-quantum, the node verifies with Cloudflare CIRCL). |
| Compatibility | IMPLEMENTED | Documented in the protocol docs and the chain configuration; checked by minerva doctor. |
| Multi-node behaviour | LOCALLY TESTED | Two-node devnet smoke (peering and block sync) only; the public testnet runs one operator node plus its bootnode identity. |
| Release integrity | LOCALLY TESTED | Two builds of one commit compared byte for byte; signatures verified by the release tooling. |
Statuses: PLANNED · IMPLEMENTED · LOCALLY TESTED · MULTI-NODE VERIFIED · INDEPENDENTLY REVIEWED. No area is independently reviewed or multi-node verified yet.
Specification
Values as configured in the genesis files and chain configuration at commit e561109. Protocol changes ship as named forks with a block number, never as silent edits.
Minerva Wallet 0.1.2
Creates Minerva accounts, signs MinervaPQTxV1 transactions with ML-DSA-65, rotates Control Keys, enrols device keys and produces the Recovery Kit. The extension exposes an EIP-1193 provider for the Minerva chain. Checksums are signed with SSH and ML-DSA-65; the verification key is published next to the files.
SHA256SUMS · ML-DSA-65 signature · public key · macOS, Windows and iOS builds are not published yet · privacy policy
Wallet
The wallet reads the account's current control record from the chain and shows it next to the account's state. Requested and confirmed changes are listed separately. The fields below follow the implemented account model.
Identity
Control actions
Shows the key that is authoritative now, read from the Account Control Registry, not the key the account was created with.
A requested rotation is listed separately until its block confirms. The previous key stays valid until then.
An encrypted backup of the ML-DSA key with a rehearsal flow. Guardian-based recovery is specified, not shipped.
Scoped keys limited to zero-value self-calls; revocation takes effect at consensus.
This page never asks for a key or a Recovery Kit. Signing and recovery happen in Minerva Wallet 0.1.2; the account model is described under Accounts.
Participate
Build minerva-geth or the Docker image, initialise from the published genesis, connect to the bootnode, verify the genesis hash with minerva doctor.
Ethash Proof of Work. Set a Minerva account as the reward address and start with --mine; rewards and the miner share of base fees are credited to that account.
Deploy Solidity contracts with standard tooling. Use @minerva/sdk to create accounts, read account control state and send native transactions.
Reference
The documents are rendered from the repository at build time. Releases carry signed checksums and a published verification key. The source repository is not public yet.
