Introduction
What Sombra is, who it's for, and why post-quantum privacy matters on Solana.
Sombra is a compliant private payments protocol on Solana, built post-quantum from genesis. It hides amounts, recipients, and the token you moved, using cryptography that stays secure against quantum threats — today and forever.
Why "post-quantum from genesis"
Every privacy protocol running today stores encrypted data on-chain. That data can be archived now and decrypted later, once a powerful enough quantum computer exists. This is called harvest-now, decrypt-later, and it is why retrofitting post-quantum cryptography does not work for a privacy chain. By the time you migrate, the ciphertexts that leak your 2026 activity have already been collected.
Sombra launches with NIST-standardised post-quantum primitives in place:
- ML-KEM-768 (FIPS 203), with AES-256-GCM, encrypts every note to its recipient.
- STARK proofs carry every spend. No trusted setup, no elliptic-curve pairings.
- No signature authorises a spend. A zero-knowledge proof does.
- Your shielded keys come from hashes. No elliptic curve is involved in owning or spending a note.
No retrofit. No migration event. No window of archived ciphertexts waiting to be broken.
What these docs cover
The products
- Private Transfers — what runs today, and exactly what it hides.
- Private Swaps — trade from a shielded balance and keep the result shielded.
- Use Cases — what is worth building on top.
The protocol
- Concepts — notes, the tree, nullifiers, and what each one hides.
- Architecture — the pieces, and how a transfer moves through them.
- Get the wallet — install the extension and send your first private transfer.
- Fees and the relayer — what it costs, and why you should let the relayer send it.
- Keys — how one phrase produces every key, for the curious.
- Security — what Sombra protects, and what it does not.
- FAQ — short answers for users and builders.
- Compliance — prove your money is clean without naming the deposit.
- Private pools and private actions — separate pools, and one open direction.
Where Sombra runs today
Sombra is live on Solana devnet. The program is smbrV6UP3CgmF9GjGJjm7rFbLN62zMX1idX3Ptwqmie.
Disclaimer. Sombra is in the process of being audited, and it handles devnet tokens only. Do not put real money anywhere that claims to be Sombra.
Who this is for
- Builders who want to move shielded value from a wallet, an app, or a treasury tool.
- DeFi protocols and financial institutions that want private settlement they can still account for.
- Users who want to know what Sombra hides and what it does not.