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thecolourfoundation/Colour

Colour

Open source. Post-quantum resistant. Client-side sovereign.

Colour is a cryptographic vault protocol built by the Colour Foundation. It implements NIST-standardised post-quantum cryptography so that the assets you store today remain secure against both classical and quantum adversaries.

No server holds your keys. No company holds your assets. The code is public. Trust is mathematical.


What Colour Is

Colour is a software vault — the cryptographic equivalent of a hardware wallet, running entirely on your own machine or your institution's own infrastructure.

  • Self-custody — private keys are generated and stored in your device's hardware secure enclave. They never leave it.
  • Post-quantum resistant — built on ML-KEM-1024, ML-DSA-87, SPHINCS+-256, NTRU Prime, and XMSS. Multiple independent algorithm families so no single mathematical breakthrough compromises the vault.
  • Zero data custody — Colour Foundation stores nothing. No keys, no addresses, no transaction history, no identity.
  • Multichain — one vault, one master key, derived across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana using BIP-44 with post-quantum wrapping.
  • Open source — every line is public. Build it yourself from source and verify the binary matches.

Who This Is For

User How they use Colour
Individual Download the release binary, run locally, connect a KYC-verified exchange wallet
Developer Clone the repository, read the architecture, contribute or build on top
Institution Deploy the MCP server on their own infrastructure with one command
Government Run the sovereign deployment package, air-gapped if required

Quick Start

Download a Release (No Technical Knowledge Required)

Go to Releases and download for your platform:

  • colour-vault-windows.exe — double click to run
  • colour-vault-mac.dmg — double click to install
  • colour-vault-linux.AppImage — double click to run

Build From Source (Developers)

Prerequisites: Rust 1.75+, Node.js 20+

git clone https://github.com/colour-foundation/colour-vault
cd colour-vault

# Build the cryptographic core
cd core && cargo build --release

# Install the MCP server and interface
cd ../mcp && npm install
cd ../interface && npm install

# Run locally
npm start

Institution Deployment

npx colour-vault init
npx colour-vault deploy

That is the entire integration. The MCP server runs on your infrastructure. Nothing leaves your environment.

Sovereign Deployment (Governments)

git clone https://github.com/colour-foundation/colour-vault
cd colour-vault
npm run deploy:sovereign

Generates compliance bundle, architecture attestation, and audit trail automatically.


Security Architecture

Colour implements a layered security model. Each layer is independent. Compromising one layer does not compromise the vault.

Layer Technology Threat Defeated
1 ML-KEM-1024 + ML-DSA-87 + SPHINCS+-256 Quantum attacks on key exchange and signing
2 Hardware Secure Enclave (iOS/Android/TPM) Physical and software key extraction
3 Multi-Party Computation + Threshold Signatures Single point of compromise
4 AES-256-GCM + ChaCha20-Poly1305 Classical encryption attacks
5 Shamir Secret Sharing (3-of-5) Seed phrase loss and theft
6 zk-STARKs Identity and data exposure during verification
7 Constant-time operations Timing and side-channel attacks
8 Secure memory allocation + zeroing Memory dump and cold boot attacks
9 Reproducible deterministic builds Supply chain and binary tampering
10 Nonce + timestamp + chain ID binding Transaction replay attacks
11 Protocol hardening + Perfect Forward Secrecy Protocol downgrade attacks
12 Kani formal verification on critical paths Logic errors in cryptographic code
13 Quantum Random Number Generation Weak randomness and key prediction
14 QKD-compatible protocol design Physics-level interception
15 NTRU Prime (independent lattice) Lattice mathematical breakthrough
16 XMSS-SHA512 (hash-based signing) All remaining signature attacks

Full technical detail: ARCHITECTURE.md


Wallet Provenance Gate

Colour requires wallet addresses originating from KYC-compliant centralised exchanges. Wallet provenance is verified on-chain automatically at setup. Colour does not perform identity verification and stores no identity data. The exchange you use has already completed that process.

This is a protocol-level decision. It is not configurable.


Repository Structure

colour-vault/
├── core/                  # Rust — all cryptographic operations
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── keygen/        # Post-quantum key generation
│   │   ├── enclave/       # Secure enclave interface
│   │   ├── encryption/    # Symmetric encryption layers
│   │   ├── recovery/      # Shamir secret sharing
│   │   ├── memory/        # Secure memory management
│   │   ├── sidechannel/   # Constant-time operations
│   │   ├── replay/        # Anti-replay protection
│   │   ├── protocol/      # Protocol hardening
│   │   ├── qrng/          # Quantum random number generation
│   │   ├── chains/        # Multichain abstraction
│   │   ├── signing/       # Offline transaction signing
│   │   └── rotation/      # Automatic key rotation
│   └── tests/
├── mcp/                   # TypeScript — institution MCP server
├── interface/             # TypeScript — local user interface
├── scripts/               # Deployment automation
└── docs/                  # Extended documentation

Supported Chains

  • Bitcoin (BTC)
  • Ethereum (ETH) + ERC-20 tokens
  • Solana (SOL)

Additional chains added via community governance.


Payments and Licensing

Colour is free and open source under Apache 2.0 for personal and research use.

Commercial institutional use requires a licence. Contact the foundation:

Email: buildwithcolours@gmail.com

Accepted payments:

Currency Address
BTC bc1qkaz97q5d93dlp9pd82x6qaecmsvm6a4tma8fwm
ETH 0x62cbb29AF89E95Ce4229A53fe55C41891c5B3671
USDC (ERC-20) 0x62cbb29AF89E95Ce4229A53fe55C41891c5B3671
USDT (ERC-20) 0x62cbb29AF89E95Ce4229A53fe55C41891c5B3671

Security Vulnerabilities

Do not open a public issue for security vulnerabilities. Read SECURITY.md for the responsible disclosure process.


Contributing

Read CONTRIBUTING.md. All contributions require signing the Contributor Licence Agreement.


Audits

All security audit results are published in AUDIT_LOG.md regardless of findings.


Licence

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE


Colour Foundation — buildwithcolours@gmail.com

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