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Atomic Patent — The Instant IP Ledger

CI A decentralized Intellectual Property registry built on Stellar Soroban smart contracts using Pedersen Commitments and Atomic Swaps.

In engineering, proving "Prior Art" across borders is expensive, slow, and lawyer-dependent. Atomic Patent lets you claim an idea instantly — without revealing it to competitors — and sell it globally without intermediaries.

🎯 What is Atomic Patent?

Atomic Patent is a Zero-Knowledge IP registry on Stellar. Engineers, inventors, and creators can:

  • Commit a cryptographic hash of their design/code to the blockchain
  • Prove they had the idea at a specific timestamp — without revealing the idea
  • Sell the patent trustlessly via Atomic Swap — the buyer gets the decryption key in the same transaction they send payment

This Soroban implementation makes Atomic Patent:

✅ Trustless (no lawyers, no notaries, no central registry) ✅ Private (Pedersen Commitments hide your idea until you choose to reveal it) ✅ Instant (timestamp your IP in seconds, not months) ✅ Global (a mechanical engineer in Lagos can sell a design to a firm in Tokyo — no intermediary needed)

🚀 Features

  • Claim IP: Commit a Pedersen hash of your design to Stellar with a verifiable timestamp
  • Prove Prior Art: On-chain proof that you held the idea before a specific date
  • Atomic Sale: Sell your patent via Atomic Swap — payment and decryption key exchange in one transaction
  • Trustless Verification: If the decryption key is invalid, the payment fails automatically
  • Borderless: Works for any creator, anywhere, with a Stellar wallet

🛠️ Quick Start

Prerequisites

  • Rust (1.70+)
  • Soroban CLI
  • Stellar CLI

Build

./scripts/build.sh

Test

./scripts/test.sh

Setup Environment

Copy the example environment file:

cp .env.example .env

Configure your environment variables in .env:

# Network configuration
STELLAR_NETWORK=testnet
STELLAR_RPC_URL=https://soroban-testnet.stellar.org

# Contract addresses (after deployment)
CONTRACT_IP_REGISTRY=<your-contract-id>
CONTRACT_ATOMIC_SWAP=<your-contract-id>

# Frontend configuration
VITE_STELLAR_NETWORK=testnet
VITE_STELLAR_RPC_URL=https://soroban-testnet.stellar.org

Network configurations are defined in environments.toml:

  • testnet — Stellar testnet
  • mainnet — Stellar mainnet
  • futurenet — Stellar futurenet
  • standalone — Local development

Deploy to Testnet

# Configure your testnet identity first
stellar keys generate deployer --network testnet

# Deploy
./scripts/deploy_testnet.sh

Run Demo

Follow the step-by-step guide in demo/demo-script.md

📖 Documentation

🎓 Smart Contract API

IP Registry

commit_ip(owner, commitment_hash) -> u64          // Timestamp a new IP commitment
get_ip(ip_id) -> IpRecord                         // Retrieve an IP record
verify_commitment(ip_id, secret) -> bool          // Verify a commitment against a secret
list_ip_by_owner(owner) -> Vec<u64>               // List all IP IDs for an owner

Atomic Swap

initiate_swap(ip_id, price, buyer) -> u64         // Seller initiates a patent sale
accept_swap(swap_id, payment)                     // Buyer accepts and sends payment
reveal_key(swap_id, decryption_key)               // Seller reveals key; payment releases
cancel_swap(swap_id)                              // Cancel if key is invalid or timeout

🧪 Testing

Comprehensive test suite covering:

✅ IP commitment and timestamping ✅ Pedersen commitment verification ✅ Atomic swap initiation and acceptance ✅ Key reveal and payment release ✅ Invalid key rejection and payment refund ✅ Error handling and edge cases

Run tests:

cargo test

🌍 Why This Matters

Intellectual property protection today requires expensive lawyers, slow national patent offices, and jurisdiction-specific filings. This locks out independent inventors and engineers in the Global South from protecting and monetizing their ideas.

Blockchain Benefits:

  • No central authority to bribe, delay, or deny
  • Cryptographic proof of prior art — accepted anywhere
  • Atomic Swap eliminates counterparty risk in patent sales
  • Accessible to anyone with a Stellar wallet

Target Users:

  • Independent engineers and inventors
  • Open-source contributors protecting prior art
  • Startups in emerging markets
  • Any creator who can't afford a patent attorney

🗺️ Roadmap

  • v1.0 (Current): XLM-only swaps, Pedersen commitment registry
  • v1.1: USDC/EURC payment support for patent sales
  • v2.0: Partial disclosure proofs (reveal claims without full design)
  • v3.0: Frontend UI with wallet integration
  • v4.0: Mobile app, legal document generation

See docs/roadmap.md for details.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please:

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
  5. Open a Pull Request

See our Code of Conduct and Contributing Guidelines.

🌊 Drips Wave Contributors

This project participates in Drips Wave — a contributor funding program! Check out:

Issues are categorized as:

  • trivial (100 points) — Documentation, simple tests, minor fixes
  • medium (150 points) — Helper functions, validation logic, moderate features
  • high (200 points) — Core features, complex integrations, security enhancements

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments