Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
Where Post-Quantum Security Fails, and Why the Database Matters
Protect the data you have. Control how it is used. Be ready to change the cryptography beneath it.
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Founder / CEO · 8Braid Inc.
Ashley Dunfield
Ashley is the founder of 8Braid Inc., creator of 8DB and sole author of its research program. His work focuses on database architecture, post-quantum protection, model-independent information systems, private AI and locally authoritative edge infrastructure.
The database should connect information, intelligence and applications, with security, privacy and owner control built into the same foundation.
Published work
Research, evidence and ideas.
Idea
AI, Evidence & Control
Keep Control as Your Data Becomes Intelligence
The next generation of AI infrastructure should carry your permissions and evidence into the answers your data helps create.
Engineering note
AI, Evidence & Control
Put Evidence to Work Inside Your Database
Give your AI application a reusable foundation for judging results, tracing changes and controlling access.
Idea
AI, Evidence & Control
Understand What Changes Before You Change It
CodeGraph connects the intent, knowledge and evidence behind software. Its wider promise is to make every contribution useful to the work that follows.
Engineering note
One Protected Substrate
How to Evaluate a New Database Without Betting Your Whole Stack
Find out whether 8DB can simplify an important part of your application while the rest of your stack keeps running. Start with one question your team needs answered.
Engineering note
One Protected Substrate
Multimodal Databases Already Exist. So What’s Different about 8DB?
The difference becomes useful when your application needs more than several data formats. 8DB brings native operations, connected representations and reusable mathematical structures into the database, so more of the work behind a complete answer can happen there.
8 min readArchitecture and source review · linked workload measurements · conceptual visualRead article ↗
Engineering note
One Protected Substrate
8DB, Ditto or Couchbase: What Does Your Offline App Need Beyond Sync?
Compare useful local questions, protection and confirmed delivery when the connection returns.
Engineering note
One Protected Substrate
New Data Capabilities in Days, not Weeks: The Value of a Reusable Core
8DB's reusable foundation lets new capabilities inherit useful machinery, so development can concentrate on the questions your application needs to answer.
Benchmark
One Protected Substrate
One Engine, Specialist-Level Performance: What the Benchmarks Show
8DB's time-series loading, vector search and combined queries have each produced strong results against named alternatives. The useful question is where that performance changes what you can build.
Engineering note
One Protected Substrate
Did 8DB Invent Its Own Cryptography?
Standard algorithms and a different security architecture can coexist. The useful question is what the architecture protects, and who has to make its parts work together.
Benchmark
Database Performance in Context
8DB storage | Keep working when the connection disappears
16,384 records captured offline. 16,512 verified after delivery and reopening. Explore what protected local storage can do for an application that must keep working.
Benchmark
Database Performance in Context
8DB cross-modal queries | 30× faster than SurrealDB
Ownership, time, location and sustained heat in one answer: 10.8 ms for 8DB, 332.5 ms for tuned SurrealDB.
8 min readMeasured synthetic shipping query · Same-host tuned comparison · Resident memoryRead article ↗
Benchmark
Database Performance in Context
8DB Vector Search: 1.8× Qdrant’s Throughput in Our Local Test
At a 99% recall floor, 8DB reached 8,551 searches per second on real text embeddings. Higher search quality, faster builds and a broader native data model make it a stronger option for applications that need more than a similarity match.
8 min readMeasured locally · Real 768D passage embeddings · Shared workstation · Unfiltered retrievalRead article ↗
Benchmark
Database Performance in Context
8DB analytics | How we compare, and what else you get
Historical analytical query results beside ClickHouse, DuckDB, StarRocks, Doris and PostgreSQL references, plus the broader opportunity of an omnimodal engine.
6 min readHistorical server-path timings · Cross-campaign market context · Two selected analytical queriesRead article ↗
Benchmark
Database Performance in Context
8DB graph lookups | 218,000 answers a second. Keep the context.
218,000 lookups per second for 8DB. A best recorded 3,410 for Neo4j. Both on an M1 laptop. A separate one-hop test also put 8DB ahead, reaching 23,300 queries per second.
12 min readrecorded service comparisons · Simplified queries · Different clients and returned-data contractsRead article ↗
Benchmark
Database Performance in Context
Half the wait: 8DB time-series loading vs. QuestDB on an M1 laptop
Five million readings, ready to query in 2.56 seconds with 8DB versus 5.16 seconds with QuestDB. A recorded bulk-loading comparison on a 16GB M1 laptop, using different clients and buffered completion.
11 min readrecorded measurements · Custom TSBS-shaped harness · Differing client configurationsRead article ↗
Benchmark
Database Performance in Context
8DB spatial search | Six million locations. A 14.7 ms answer.
Six million locations, recorded GIS-tool comparisons, competitor timeouts and the broader opportunity of an omnimodal spatial engine.
5 min readHistorical kernel and query-path timings · Different measurement boundaries · Selected SpatialBench workloadsRead article ↗
Benchmark
Database Performance in Context
8DB key-value reads | 19.99 million reads a second in our recorded run
recorded results on the same server, using different benchmark configurations. Inside the comparison and the 27.6M mixed-workload peak of 8DB, an omnimodal database.
7 min readHistorical report summaries · Custom YCSB-shaped harness · Different comparator configurationsRead article ↗
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
Four Illusions of Post-Quantum Database Security
8DB brings protected storage, post-quantum exchange and cryptographic change into the database. Here is what that changes for the applications built on it.
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
Protect your data from quantum threats. Take control today.
A future upgrade cannot protect a vulnerable copy already captured. Put post-quantum protection in the data systems you control, at rest and between your 8DB nodes.
Idea
AI With Authority
I Would Pay for a Good Counterexample
What if an AI earned its reward by passing an agreed check, including a check that proves your original idea wrong? A thought experiment about commissioning useful, inspectable research.
Idea
AI With Authority
The Dataset Doesn't Have to Change Hands
A data owner could sell twenty executions of an approved analysis without distributing the underlying dataset. The useful product is a permitted use, with clear limits on what leaves.
Research
One Protected Substrate
8DB | Eight Explanations. How Can a New Kind of Database Help You Tell Them Apart?
A BioTwin research prototype used 8DB's lattice operators to examine eight competing explanations. The useful result was knowing what each possible observation could settle, and what it could not.
4 min readRecorded local software qualification · Authored hypotheses · No biological validationRead article ↗
Research
One Protected Substrate
8DB | Should Reordering the Same Work Change the Encryption Key?
Some event orders are interchangeable; others change the meaning. 8DB’s braid-conditioned channel makes that distinction usable in key derivation, opening a concrete research path for distributed protocols.
5 min readImplemented channel · Source tests reviewed · Protocol integration remains separateRead article ↗
Idea
AI With Authority
Would You Give an AI $100 and Walk Away?
An AI that can act for you needs more than a spending limit. It needs authority tied to current rules and evidence. That opens useful possibilities, and an uncomfortable question about who controls the controls.
Research
Iterating on Navier-Stokes
After OpenAI's Navier-Stokes Proof, What Can the Next AI Reuse?
We reproduced the formal checks, proved an explicit bound for one construction step, and tested how 8DB handles its evidence. The larger opportunity is to help AI catch checkable errors while it works, before they become the next step's assumptions.
Engineering note
Iterating on Navier-Stokes
8DB | Stop Losing the Research You've Already Paid For
A result can exist in your archive while the next team still treats it as missing. Our research review recovered an overlooked formal contribution and separated repeated documents from independent evidence. The useful outcome was a connected record of what could be reused, what needed another check and why.
6 min readHistorical review records · Recovered formal artifact · Native persistence qualificationRead article ↗
Idea
Trustworthy AI Data
Your AI Found the Right Passage. Can It Tell Whether to Trust It?
A relevant answer can come from an expired policy or hide a conflicting source. We propose testing the evidence a retrieval system hands to an agent, so teams can see what survives the journey from stored record to answer.
Engineering note
Iterating on Navier-Stokes
When Evidence Changes, Know Which Decisions Need Review
A withdrawn source should lead you to the conclusions that relied on it. 8DB’s research evidence twin makes those dependencies explicit, applies declared support rules and identifies the affected paths. That makes reassessment more focused while preserving unrelated work.
5 min readEvidence-twin implementation and historical fixture · scoped change-impact analysisRead article ↗
Engineering note
Trustworthy AI Data
8DB | Your AI Remembers. Who Controls What It Keeps?
Persistent memory becomes more useful when its origin, access rules and dependencies survive with it. 8DB combines those building blocks with a checkable structural-erasure path for isolated contributions.
Idea
Trust Beyond Ledgers
8DB | Can Aid Be Accountable Without Tracking Everyone?
A benefit program needs to check its rules. Recipients need access to support without unnecessary exposure of their lives. A proposed 8DB application starts by deciding what each participant actually needs to know.
Engineering note
Trustworthy AI Data
8DB | A Prompt Can Ask for Your Secrets. Can the Agent Open Them?
Put your AI agent’s protected data access behind encryption. With 8DB, test which records open, which stay sealed and what happens when authority changes, independently of the model’s response to a prompt.
Engineering note
Trust Beyond Ledgers
8DB | Can Your Audit Trail Explain Why the Decision Changed?
A reviewer needs the evidence behind yesterday's assessment and a clear account of what changed today. Connected sources, versions and conclusions can make that investigation easier to repeat.
Engineering note
Trust Beyond Ledgers
8DB | Before You Delete the Data, Check What Depends on It
A source note can disappear while a decision built on it remains. 8DB's braid primitives offer a way to examine represented dependencies, remove an eligible contribution and retain evidence of the change.
Engineering note
Evidence and Evaluation
8DB Makes Every Benchmark Carry Its Evidence
A performance number is useful only when you can see what was measured, where it ran, what completion meant and how to reproduce it. 8DB turns those conditions into a structured record so buyers can challenge the result instead of trusting the chart.
Engineering note
Iterating on Navier-Stokes
8DB | The Proof Passed. Did It Answer the Right Question?
Formal verification checks an exact mathematical statement. A clause audit checks whether that statement captures the intended problem. Our Navier-Stokes record shows how 8DB keeps those two judgments connected without confusing them.
5 min readSource-matched audit · 22 recorded Lean theorem checks · Specialist review remains distinctRead article ↗
Idea
8DB on Apple Silicon
8DB | Give On-Device AI the Context Behind Your Question
People remember a person, a place and a moment. 8DB brings connected representations, evidence and explicit access decisions to the data layer beneath local AI.
5 min readrecorded M1 keyword report · Native-search source review · Illustrative application designRead article ↗
Engineering note
Fielded Systems
8DB | Fewer Security Handoffs. A Clearer Database Assessment.
A smaller data stack is useful when it makes the evidence easier to follow. Connect each security claim to its implementation, tested profile and deployment responsibility before putting it in the assessor's binder.
4 min readEvidence-index guide · Source-bound qualification review · Deployment scope explicitRead article ↗
Research
Iterating on Navier-Stokes
8DB | Keep the Research Alternatives a Single Score Would Hide
One mathematical candidate improved four certified bounds. Another remained worth keeping. An 8DB experiment shows why research needs more than a leaderboard.
5 min readFixed-profile certified bounds · Exact-rational audit rerun September 18 · Native lattice comparisonRead article ↗
Engineering note
Iterating on Navier-Stokes
8DB | What Can Geometry Reveal That Data Points Alone Cannot?
Geometry can reveal a pattern; calculus can distinguish states that look identical; numerical bounds can test a promising observation. Explore how 8DB connects these perspectives with their evidence, helping researchers move from a useful clue to a checked calculation.
Engineering note
One Protected Substrate
8DB | Beyond Timestamps: Give Interacting Histories a Structure
The same participants and final state can describe very different histories. Native braids give ordered interactions a structure of their own in 8DB.
Engineering note
Iterating on Navier-Stokes
8DB | Making Large Proofs Practical on Smaller Machines
Our recovered logs show a successful formal build under a 28 GiB job-memory limit. The useful lesson is how to keep expensive work moving, and how to record exactly what finished.
5 min readHistorical build and axiom audit complete · Resumed work · Separate fresh replay remains openRead article ↗
Engineering note
Trustworthy AI Data
Your AI Has an Answer. Where Did Its Data Come From?
8DB's encrypted-store tests retrieve a value together with its recorded origins. That gives AI builders a concrete foundation for an evidence trail: preserve the source while storing the data, then make it available when someone needs to review the answer.
5 min readEncrypted-store regression · Source-bound implementation review · Proposed application evaluationRead article ↗
Engineering note
One Protected Substrate
Keep Your Data Connected. Cut the Work Between Databases.
One customer question can cross documents, vectors and graph relationships. 8DB brings native data representations into an omnimodal engine so teams can evaluate how much copying, reconciliation and policy coordination they can remove.
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | AES-256 Protects Your Data. What Protects the Key?
A post-quantum plan starts with the whole protection chain: the cipher, the keys and the records you already hold. Separating those jobs helps you ask better questions and build a migration you can verify.
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
Make Your Post-Quantum Migration Repeatable
Your data may outlive several generations of cryptography. 8DB brings protection changes, retained-copy accounting and restore authority into the same lifecycle, so a migration has a defined finish line.
Research
Trustworthy AI Data
Give Your AI the Evidence Behind the Answer
A useful retrieval result carries its source, uncertainty and coverage as well as its content. 8DB gives AI builders those distinctions in the data layer, so applications can decide when to answer, qualify or investigate.
Research
Trustworthy AI Data
OpenSanctions in 8DB: follow the ownership, then the missing evidence
OpenSanctions brings together sanctions and watchlist data. Our 8DB research workflow used its ownership records to reconstruct a fourteen-company transition, correct an earlier subsidiary claim, and identify the evidence an investigator should seek next.
Research
Iterating on Navier-Stokes
8DB | When the Evidence Changes, Which Conclusions Still Stand?
A research announcement can change a field overnight. Our Navier-Stokes evidence twin connects exact claims, recorded checks and dependencies so a team can see what needs review and what has independent support.
5 min readHistorical verification records · Source-reviewed dependency query · Mathematical review remains distinctRead article ↗
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | Your Encryption Upgrade Must Include Yesterday’s Backup
8DB connects protection changes, registered retained copies and restore authority in one lifecycle. That makes a migration easier to account for, even when yesterday’s backup comes back.
4 min readRecorded migration and restore controls · Primary market references · Comparison protocolRead article ↗
Engineering note
One Protected Substrate
8DB | Turn an Offline Map into a Field Investigation
A map becomes more valuable when it connects a place to readings, observations and history. Our Calgary spatial experiment shows the local-query foundation for that opportunity.
6 min readHistorical iOS simulator diagnostic · Spatial locality demonstrated · Device performance separately qualifiedRead article ↗
Research
Iterating on Navier-Stokes
8DB | Catch the Missing Step Before Research Becomes a Decision
A useful observation can carry an unsupported conclusion into the next report. A claim ledger makes the connection inspectable: what was observed, what was inferred, which test supports the inference, and which decisions depend on it. One mathematical example shows why that distinction matters.
6 min readWorked mathematical example · Pinned implementation review · Proposed acceptance workflowRead article ↗
Idea
Iterating on Navier-Stokes
8DB | What If Every Failed Research Attempt Made the Next One Stronger?
A difficult problem should leave more than a transcript. Our Navier-Stokes work shows how a database can retain the missing capability, the evidence behind it and the next check, so later attempts have something concrete to build on.
5 min readSource-reviewed research workflow · Historical friction log · No Navier-Stokes solution claimRead article ↗
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | Your Backup Remembers Old Permissions. Should Your Restore?
A useful recovery test checks more than whether data opens. See how 8DB’s recorded lifecycle qualification connects an old backup, current authority and the retained copies that still need migration.
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | Find the Data Copies Your Migration Plan Misses
A customer record can leave traces in search, analytics, backups and exports. Follow one record through an illustrative inventory, then see where shared identity can reduce the work of keeping those representations protected.
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | Post-Quantum Migration: Who Owns the Gaps Between Your Tools?
A new algorithm, a rotated key and a successful restore answer different questions. Use this buyer's grid to connect them, assign the handoffs and evaluate what 8DB can bring into one data engine.
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | Make Cryptographic Migration a Product Feature
When your customer changes a protection requirement, the records already stored still matter. Embedding 8DB offers a way to bring migration evidence into your product, with a clear boundary between the engine's work and yours.
5 min readRecorded KDF and restore qualification · Source-reviewed implementation · Integration guideRead article ↗
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | Post-Quantum Protection Without a Cloud Key Service
A fielded system may need to protect records long after its last connection. 8DB brings key establishment and storage protection into the process, with root custody and offline authority made explicit.
4 min readSource-reviewed software composition · Recorded component evidence · Deployment evaluation guideRead article ↗
Engineering note
Evaluation and Assurance
OpenSanctions in 8DB: which conclusions survive a source change?
OpenSanctions connects sanctions and watchlist records across sources. In a controlled experiment, 8DB tracked how withdrawing ownership evidence changed a dated conclusion while another source kept the broader link supported. The aim: show an analyst exactly what needs review.
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | Your Quantum Migration Plan Needs an Archive Strategy
A new connection can use new cryptography while an old backup still depends on an earlier key. Give long-lived financial records a migration plan that accounts for copies, recovery and evidence.
4 min readPrimary roadmap reviewed · Recorded KDF and restore qualification · Evaluation guideRead article ↗
Engineering note
Evaluation and Assurance
Give AI Agents the Right Data. Keep the Rest Sealed.
8DB binds the implemented protected-read path to a cryptographic access context. That gives AI teams a concrete way to limit data exposure even when an agent follows the wrong instruction.
4 min readProtected-read mechanisms · Boundary acceptance checks · Evaluation guidanceRead article ↗
Engineering note
Fielded Systems
8DB | Keep the Whole Field Task Working Offline
Finding an asset, checking its history and saving the next observation should survive a lost connection. 8DB brings local data operations and protected delivery into one engine, with a completed recovery rehearsal to build on.
5 min readField workflow guide · Recorded recovery evidence · Deployment acceptance planRead article ↗
Benchmark
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB protected storage | Post-quantum keys. The same compact records.
In paired tests, post-quantum-established keys kept the same compact encrypted records. The wider evaluation is how storage, exchange and cryptographic migration fit together.
5 min readPaired record-encryption measurements · Migration and recovery separately measured · Public source recordsRead article ↗
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | When Is a Cryptographic Migration Actually Finished?
Changing an algorithm is only one part of the work. Define completion for keys, ciphertext, signatures and restored access, then use 8DB’s recorded lifecycle case to design a test your team can repeat.
Engineering note
Fielded Systems
8DB | Turn a Maintenance Alert Into Evidence You Can Inspect
Connect the warning to its readings, component history and model version. An omnimodal data layer can make the investigation easier to follow, from a disconnected platform to the maintenance review.
5 min readMaintenance workflow design · Primary provenance research · Scoped component evidenceRead article ↗
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | Which Data Copies Still Need a Security Upgrade?
8DB’s cryptographic posture export connects a dataset’s protection profile with the copies registered to it. That gives migration teams a concrete place to inspect what they have, what blocks a target and what still needs checking.
5 min readRecorded managed-inventory exports · Schema validation retained · Scope explicitRead article ↗
Engineering note
Evaluation and Assurance
Put 8DB’s Security Claims to the Test
A vendor-run Linux replay passed all 31 tests and baseline comparisons in 8DB’s generic evaluation catalog. The useful result is a repeatable path from a named claim to a pinned executable, raw evidence and a decision your team can inspect.
5 min readVendor-operated generic Linux replay · 31 tests and baseline matches · Independent handoff in preparationRead article ↗
Research
Model-Independent Data
8DB | One Memory for AI That Sees, Searches and Remembers
A photo can become a caption, a place on a map, a search result and evidence for an AI answer. 8DB's architectural opportunity is to keep those representations connected to their source, history and rules for use as personal AI grows more capable.
Idea
Trust Beyond Ledgers
When AI Buys the Machine, Who Verifies the Deal?
When an AI buys a machine, payment is only part of the decision. The next opportunity is to connect the transaction to its authority, evidence and disclosure rules, so every participant can check the part that matters to them.
Benchmark
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | Small Records. Strong Integrity. Fewer Post-Quantum Signatures.
A post-quantum signature can dwarf the record it protects. 8DB's native batch-proof component shares one signature across a group while keeping individual records verifiable.
6 min readSource-inspected native component · recorded storage experiments · Distinct verification contractsRead article ↗
Research
One Protected Substrate
8DB | Native Multimodal Data: Connect the Dots Across Graphs, Maps and Time Series
Relationships, location, time and documents offer different ways to understand the same data. 8DB connects those perspectives through native representations and shared identity, so your questions can cross them. See how that changes an investigation and what to test in your own workflow.
4 min readArchitecture analysis · implementation reviewed · illustrative vessel exampleRead article ↗
Engineering note
Post-Quantum Databases
8DB | Protect Your Data After the Secure Connection Ends
Your records spend far longer in databases, indexes and backups than in transit. A post-quantum plan should follow the data through storage, use, transfer and recovery.
4 min readArchitecture guide · Pinned protected-node review · Recorded storage evidenceRead article ↗
Idea
One Protected Substrate
8DB | Personal AI Across Devices Starts With Connected Memory
An assistant should be able to carry a useful memory from phone to laptop without losing its source, correction history or sharing rules. Here is the architecture we are pursuing with 8DB, and the practical test that would make it valuable.
5 min readArchitecture thesis · Source-reviewed building blocks · Illustrative device workflowRead article ↗