SPECTER

Private receiving without a public recipient trail

SPECTER lets you publish one public meta-address and receive each payment at a different one-time stealth address.

The discovery path uses ML-KEM-768, so the announcement data that helps you recover payments is designed to remain private even under future quantum attacks.

S

Understand the model

Learn the core ideas: meta-addresses, announcements, view tags, and stealth addresses.

P

Run the quickstart

Execute the current API flow end to end against the hosted backend.

Build with SPECTER

Choose an integration pattern and review the current API and security model.

GA

Contribute

Review the open GitHub issues and find the highest-value work.

---

Use the docs by goal

These docs are organized around reader intent. Start with the path that matches your job.

Evaluating SPECTER

Read The Problem for the privacy and quantum context, then How SPECTER Works for the plain-language model.

Use SPECTER vs Others and Security Boundaries to evaluate tradeoffs honestly.

Builder

Start with the API Quickstart, then move to the Integration Guide and the API Overview.

If you need to run the stack locally, go to Installation and Development Setup.

Contributor

Review Contribution Opportunities first. It maps the current GitHub backlog to repo areas and contributor skill sets.

Then use Contributing for the workflow and Verification Matrix to keep changes source-backed.

Deep technical review

Go straight to Protocol Flow, Architecture, and Post-Quantum Cryptography.

For source-backed validation, use Verification Matrix and the product repo on GitHub.

---

Protocol in 30 seconds

1. The recipient creates a meta-address from public spending and viewing keys.
2. The sender derives a one-time stealth address from that meta-address.
3. The sender transfers funds and publishes an announcement with an ephemeral_key and view_tag.
4. The recipient scans announcements, recovers the matching stealth key, and spends normally.

Observers can see the transfer and the announcement. They should not be able to link the stealth address back to the recipient without the private keys.

---

Current implementation status

Warning

The docs describe the current shipped behavior, not the end-state vision.

Area	Current status
Key generation	The hosted API currently exposes POST /api/v1/keys/generate, which returns long-term keys from the backend flow. Client-side key generation is tracked in issue #18.
Announcement recovery	Discovery currently depends on the backend-managed registry. Backend-independent recovery from on-chain announcements is tracked in issue #16.
Yellow integration	Channel creation and discovery are documented as implemented. Funding and close flows still include integration scaffolding and placeholder-style behavior.

---

What makes SPECTER different today

	SPECTER	Classical stealth (Umbra/Fluidkey)
Discovery crypto	ML-KEM-768 (post-quantum)	ECDH (broken by quantum)
Harvest-now-decrypt-later safe	Yes	No
View tag scanning	~1-2s for 100k announcements	10-15s
Multi-chain	Ethereum + Sui	Ethereum only
Name service integration	ENS + SuiNS	ENS
NIST standard	FIPS 203	N/A

Tip

If you only read three pages, start with How SPECTER Works, Protocol Flow, and Security Boundaries.

---

Keep going

API reference

Browse the full REST surface and endpoint groups.

Verification matrix

Validate docs claims against the current source and issue backlog.

GA

Contribution opportunities

Review the current GitHub issues and contributor paths.