Horcrux is a secure multi-party computation (MPC) signing service designed for CometBFT nodes (formerly known as Tendermint). It enhances the security and availability of validator infrastructures by introducing fault-tolerant block signing mechanisms and advanced private key protection.
- High Availability (HA): Horcrux replaces traditional remote signers with a cluster of signer nodes, enabling fault-tolerant block signing and minimizing downtime risks.
- Enhanced Security: It protects your validator’s private key by splitting it across multiple signer nodes using threshold Ed25519 signatures, ensuring no single point of failure.
- Optimized Performance: Provides robust security and availability without compromising block signing performance.
Validator operators face a critical challenge in balancing operational reliability and security to avoid penalties such as slashing due to downtime or double signing.
Horcrux addresses these challenges by:
- Preventing Downtime: Traditional low-availability setups require manual failovers, which can lead to downtime if intervention is delayed. Horcrux’s fault-tolerant design mitigates this risk.
- Avoiding Double Signing: High-availability systems that rely on hot spares risk double signing in the event of failover detection bugs. Horcrux’s consensus and failover detection mechanisms reduce this risk.
- Ensuring Consensus: Through multi-party computation and Raft-based leader election, Horcrux ensures reliable and secure operations, balancing high availability with robust security.
For detailed installation instructions and migration guidance, refer to the official Horcrux installation guide: