The world's first and only Category 5 database built from storage to mesh.*

8DB packages the cryptographic suite, key lifecycle, operating boundary, configuration and evidence needed to evaluate an exact deployment. Government authorization remains system- and mission-specific rather than attaching universally to a database product name.

No specialized hardware is required for the core protection path. Rollback freshness can compare the local tamper-evident causal anchor with a peer-witnessed or published tip, providing the external monotonic reference in software. 8DB remains enclave-compatible for defense in depth, and customer authorization or key-custody policy may still require an HSM or validated module.

No. Plaintext was 115 B and both encrypted records were 131 B. The measured claim is that PQC added zero further bytes per record versus classical encryption because both use the same AES-256-GCM-SIV data path. PQC adds one 1,616 B key-establishment envelope, equal to 0.0123 percent at 100,000 records in this harness.

No. It describes the executed 100,000-record, 115-byte fixture against PostgreSQL with an independent 4,627-byte ML-DSA-87 signature per record. An expert Merkle batch reduced PostgreSQL to 24.5 MB, versus 13.1 MB for 8DB, but required a separate application-layer mutation, proof and provenance boundary. Both alternatives are shown because the correct comparison depends on whether individual non-repudiation permits batching.

No—and conflating them would weaken the security model. Zero knowledge applies to named proof-bearing operations with a defined statement, witness and verifier. Encryption protects bytes; policy-derived keys enforce scoped access; designated-verifier attestations bind policy; sealed search reduces plaintext exposure; freshness resists rollback; and erasure closes the lifecycle. Each mechanism states what it hides, what it proves and what it can still reveal.

The same scope must close secondary surfaces: search and autocomplete, notifications, thumbnails and previews, embeddings, caches, analytics, replicas and other derived artifacts. That prevents a product from hiding the record while still revealing its existence or content through another subsystem.

It does not have to. 8DB recovery can be selected per scope: device quorum, guardians, a recovery kit, enterprise officer quorum or no recovery. The security review still covers share rotation, former guardians, accumulated compromise, coercion and cross-scope escalation.

SurrealDB is a strong modern reference for native multimodality, developer experience and embedded deployment. 8DB is positioned around the additional combination of Category 5 storage and device-mesh protection, protected query, decentralized edge operation and broader topological or hypergraph structures.

There is no single universal government database certificate. Publicly documented incumbents cover pieces—primarily PQ or hybrid transport—while 8DB delivers the storage-to-mesh capability intersection in one product and one evaluation boundary. The authorizing body evaluates the exact deployed system.

It can increase attack surface, but it is not insecure by definition. Each additional engine, connector and ETL path adds identities, credentials, network calls, serializers, logs, backups, patches, data copies and policy mappings that must be secured and monitored. A well-engineered zero-trust composition can manage these risks; it simply has more boundaries to prove and operate.

When the requirement is limited to PQ transport, established certification and procurement maturity may outweigh architectural breadth. 8DB is most compelling when the full combination of high-assurance protection, edge autonomy, encrypted query and multimodality is required.