The Astral Protocol provides infrastructure for verifiable location-based services. When a system answers a spatial question — is this point inside that region? — Astral produces a signed, independently checkable record that the answer was computed correctly, without exposing the underlying coordinates.
Why location matters for AI governanceCoordinates, check-ins, reported boundaries — all of it can be spoofed, replayed, or faked. And even when the data is honest, the computation on top of it usually isn't checkable: you take the operator's word that the result is what they say it is.
That's fine until the answer carries weight — did this run inside the permitted region, did this stay within the agreed bounds, is this on the right side of the line. Astral is a layer for producing location-based results that someone else can verify, rather than simply trust.
Astral collects location proofs and runs geospatial policy checks over them, producing verifiable evidence a third party can check.
Astral runs geospatial operations — distance, area, containment, proximity — and returns the result alongside a signed attestation binding it to its inputs. Anyone can verify the computation was performed correctly, without re-running it. The compute is designed to run inside a trusted execution environment, so the operator can't tamper with the result.
Signed attestations · TEE-targetedA location claim is only as credible as the evidence behind it. Astral provides a pipeline for collecting location evidence from independent sources — satellite, network, mobile device attestation, peer witnesses — signing each as a stamp, and bundling them into a single proof with its credibility made explicit. Alpha plugins are released, and the set of location proof plugins is growing. The construction is written up in Towards stronger location proofs.
Alpha plugins released · more in progressThe same primitive — verifiable evidence a third party can check — supports a range of systems, depending on the policy attached to it. A few of the directions we're exploring:
A verifiable check against a policy region, without exposing site coordinates or operational detail.
For field teams, sensor networks, and regulated logistics, at a disclosure level both parties set.
A periodic, checkable record that data and processing stayed in a permitted region.
In sectors where location determines which rules apply, an artifact a reviewer can verify later.
This is an early research preview, developed in the open. The protocols, proof constructions, and the open data standard underneath them (the Location Protocol) are published and refined in public — verifiability only means something if the system can be inspected end to end.
The work is informed by a research affiliation with the University of Maryland and by collaborators across the secure-hardware, cryptography, and geospatial-standards communities.
We are interested in collaborators, pilot users, and research partnerships.