Hardware Security Modules

It is mission critical that an attacker cannot steal a validator's key. If this is possible, it puts the entire stake delegated to the compromised validator at risk. Hardware security modules are an important strategy for mitigating this risk.

HSM modules must support ed25519 signatures for the hub. The YubiHSM2 supports ed25519 and this yubikey library is available. The YubiHSM can protect a private key but cannot ensure in a secure setting that it won't sign the same block twice.

The Tendermint team is also working on extending our Ledger Nano S application to support validator signing. This app can store recent blocks and mitigate double signing attacks.

We will update this page when more key storage solutions become available.