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03Research prototype

A public record of what is blocked on school internet, who decided it and until when.

Research prototype (v0.6.0): contracts not audited, no public deployment.

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In short

Verifiable Policy Registry: accountable content filtering for school connectivity. It protects children without creating an opaque censorship tool. Anyone can verify what is blocked, who decided it and for how long, and no data that identifies a child is ever published. Open source, in preparation as a Digital Public Good. Research prototype (v0.6.0): contracts not audited, no public deployment.

“Protection that cannot be audited is hard to distinguish from censorship.”
— Verifiable Policy Registry, white paper v0.7
“Privacy by collection, not by deletion.”
— Verifiable Policy Registry, README

The problem

Connecting a school to the internet also means protecting children from malware, scams (phishing) and harmful content, and that is done with filters. But the same filter that protects can also censor, and today nobody outside the system can check what is blocked or why.

Like a public receipt for every block rule: the same protection, no longer in secret.

  1. 01

    The school connects and a filter protects it

    The filter blocks harmful sites, such as malware or phishing pages (fake pages that steal personal data).

  2. 02

    Every block rule is published

    Each rule becomes a public record: what is blocked, who approved it and until when it applies.

  3. 03

    Anyone can check it and appeal it

    Families, teachers or auditors can review a rule and appeal it. If nobody renews a rule, it expires on its own.

  4. 04

    About schools, only daily totals

    Only daily totals are published about each school. Never data about a child.

Illustrative example

Block rule · version 3

Illustrative example
Blocked category
Phishing and malware sites
Approved by
3 independent institutions · 2 signatures required
Expires on
31.03.2027, unless it is signed again
Status
In force · open to appeal
School data
Daily totals only
Illustrative example: a generic record that does not match any real rule, institution or school.

  • Families

    Knowing there is protection, without hidden censorship.

  • Schools and teachers

    Seeing what their connection blocks and asking for a review when something useful for class is blocked.

  • Ministries and regulators

    Accountability: every rule is public, signed and has an expiry date.

  • Auditors and civil society

    Checking the rules, who signed them and their history, and filing appeals.

For those who want the technical detail

VPR separates two things: enforcement of the filtering and accountability.

  1. 01

    Enforcement

    Done by a standard DNS resolver in the country (the service that turns a site’s name into its address).

  2. 02

    Accountability

    Lives on an Ethereum layer-2 network (a lower-cost network built on Ethereum) that stores only cryptographic commitments: digital fingerprints of each rule, not the data itself.

Design decisions, still proposed

  • ProposedEvery policy version expires unless it is signed again. Proposed pilot maximum: 90 days; contract hard cap: 365 days.

  • ProposedPolicies are approved by a multi-signature of independent institutions. Proposed pilot model: 2 of 3 signers.

  • ProposedAggregates below a threshold are not published, nor is their number. Proposed starting value: k = 10. This is small-cell suppression, not differential privacy.

  • ProposedCommitments are anchored as daily Merkle roots on an Ethereum layer 2. Proposed: OP Mainnet; testnet: OP Sepolia.

  • Appeals store only a document hash.

  • What anyone can verify

    Anyone can check what is blocked, who decided it and for how long. Every policy expires, and any block can be appealed.

  • What is published about schools

    Only daily aggregates with small-cell suppression. Never data that identifies a child.

  • Licenses

    Code AGPL-3.0, schemas CC0, documentation CC BY 4.0.

  • Status

    Research prototype v0.6.0. Contracts not audited. No public deployment. In preparation as a Digital Public Good (self-assessment).

v0.6.0 (research prototype, pre-release) · white paper v0.7 (draft for review)

What VPR does not claim

  • Contracts not audited
  • No formal verification (bounded symbolic checks only)
  • No deployment on public networks
  • No independent review
  • No endorsement, funding or pilot commitment from the Ethereum Foundation, UNICEF, the ITU, Giga, ministries or the DPGA
  • Not a registered Digital Public Good
  • ZK proofs not implemented

Claims and evidence register ↗ (opens in a new tab)

  1. M0

    Proof of concept: completed (end-to-end demo, no schools)

  2. M1

    Design and approval (Gate A)

  3. M2

    Reference implementation on testnet and a proposed alpha in 2–5 schools (Gate B)

  4. M3

    Metrics, audit and mainnet registry (Gate C)

  5. M4

    Reference implementation of ZK aggregation

Phase 2 (20–50 schools) only if the gates are met and with separate funding.

School pilot: proposal only. No commitment, letter of interest, endorsement or deployment exists with Giga or any other party.

VPR is designed against the Digital Public Goods standard (self-assessment in preparation), with the technical evidence in the open so an external reviewer can reproduce it.

Who is behind it

Maintainer
Fernando BoieroORCID 0009-0005-7935-2758 (opens in a new tab)

About Xcapit, the organization behind VPR. The projects below are independent of VPR; none of the organizations mentioned takes part in it.

Why Xcapit

Xcapit has already built digital public goods with UNICEF and with governments: an open wallet, a DAO for a child-protection digital public good, humanitarian-aid infrastructure and self-sovereign identity.

More Xcapit projects

All solutions
The Xcapit team with local participants on a street in Cusco, Peru

If you review projects, do research or work on school connectivity, we want your perspective.

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Or write to dpg@xcapit.com

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Xcapit team and local participants, Cusco · Photo: Xcapit