Sovereign Browser — Own Your Web

EVM Chains

∞

Name Ownership

Monthly Fees

100%

Self-Custody

What is Sovereign Browser?

THE PLATFORM

Sovereign Browser is a desktop Electron application that combines a full web browser, a multi-chain wallet, a decentralized name registry, a peer-to-peer hosting network, and an AI agent runtime into a single unified interface. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Unlike traditional browsers, Sovereign Browser resolves names from on-chain registries across 19 EVM-compatible blockchains in parallel, in addition to ENS on Ethereum and standard DNS. When you type a name in the address bar — whether it's a phrase like big dude coffee or a domain like hi.dude — the browser checks every supported chain simultaneously and returns the best result ranked by keyword match, traffic, and registration age.

Websites hosted on the Sovereign Browser network are served directly from a peer-to-peer IPFS pinning network operated by staked node operators. Site owners can also point their existing web2 domain's DNS to a pinner node IP, making their web3 site accessible to any browser in the world without Sovereign Browser installed.

Name & Handle Registry

WEB3 IDENTITY

Every name on Sovereign Browser is a permanently owned NFT on the blockchain. There are three types:

◈ Phrase Handles — $100 PYUSD

Any freeform phrase: big dude coffee, alice1, my design studio. Soulbound to your wallet. Resolves to your IPFS site, HTTP URL, Arweave content, or any supported resolver. Includes an on-chain keyword index — each word in your phrase becomes searchable across the registry. Lifetime ownership, no renewal fees.

◉ TLD Registration — $500 PYUSD

Own a top-level domain like .dude, .coffee, or .studio. Set your own domain pricing. Earn 90% of every domain registration fee under your TLD. Platform takes 10%. TLD ownership is permanent and transferable on the marketplace.

◎ Domains — TLD price

Register domains under any existing TLD: hi.dude, shop.coffee. Priced by the TLD owner. Supports all resolver types: IPFS, HTTP, Arweave, IPNS, WebSocket, GraphQL, API endpoints, and encrypted records. Full DNS record management within the app.

🌐 Multi-Chain Registration

Register any name on any or all 19 supported chains simultaneously. Each chain registration is independent — the same phrase on Arbitrum and Base creates two separate NFTs. The browser searches all chains in parallel and shows results with chain source badges. Register on all 19 chains in a single form submission.

Supported Blockchains

19 EVM-COMPATIBLE CHAINS

Sovereign Browser works across all 19 chains out of the box. Your wallet uses a single seed phrase that generates the same address on every EVM chain. Register names, host sites, and pay fees on any supported chain — or all of them at once.

ARB · Arbitrum One NOVA · Arbitrum Nova BASE · Base OP · Optimism BLAST · Blast LINEA · Linea SCR · Scroll MNT · Mantle METIS · Metis BSC · BNB Smart Chain POL · Polygon PoS ZKEVM · Polygon zkEVM AVAX · Avalanche FTM · Fantom Opera CELO · Celo CRO · Cronos ONE · Harmony GNO · Gnosis Chain KAVA · Kava EVM

Decentralized Hosting Network

IPFS PINNING + HTTP GATEWAY

Any Sovereign Browser user can become a pinner node by staking $5 PYUSD into the HostingNetwork contract. Pinners store and serve IPFS content for registered sites. Each site is pinned by 10 nodes simultaneously for redundancy. Revenue from hosting fees is distributed automatically: 90% split equally across the 10 active pinners, 10% protocol fee.

Four Hosting Tiers

Starter ($50/yr · 50MB), Basic ($90/yr · 100MB), Standard ($160/yr · 200MB), Pro ($280/yr · 500MB). Upgrade anytime paying only the prorated difference. 15-day grace period on expiry before content is unpinned.

HTTP Gateway — Any Browser

Each pinner node also runs an HTTP server on port 80/443. Site owners point their Namecheap/Cloudflare DNS A record to any pinner IP. Visitors using Chrome, Safari, or Firefox reach the web3 site automatically — no Sovereign Browser required.

Traffic Reporting

Visit counts are tracked in encrypted local SQLite on each pinner — the operator cannot view or modify them. On the 1st of each month, counts are automatically submitted on-chain. Traffic data influences name ranking in search results.

On-Chain File Backup

SiteBackup contract stores files permanently in Arbitrum calldata (immutable on-chain storage). AES-256-GCM encrypted before submission. Fee is 1.5× the gas estimate in PYUSD. Last 3 backup versions retained per site with full retrieval.

Wallet & Payments

SELF-CUSTODY · MULTI-CHAIN · PYUSD

Sovereign Browser generates a standard BIP-44 HD wallet from a 12-word seed phrase shown once during setup. The same wallet address works on all 19 supported chains. Private keys are stored encrypted with AES-256-GCM, protected by Argon2id key derivation from your passphrase and PIN. Keys never leave your device.

Platform fees are denominated in PYUSD — PayPal's USD-pegged stablecoin — allowing direct funding from any PayPal wallet. On chains where PYUSD liquidity is available natively (Arbitrum, Base), fees are paid directly. On other chains, users can pay in the native gas token (ETH, MATIC, BNB, AVAX, etc.) as an alternative.

All write transactions use the EIP-4337 Paymaster on Arbitrum — users never pay gas in ETH for platform operations. Gas is pre-calculated at 1.5× the actual gas cost, with 0.5× going to the platform operator and 1.0× covering actual gas. The operator maintains gas pools on each chain from accumulated PYUSD fees.

The wallet panel shows live PYUSD and native gas balances across all 19 chains simultaneously, with gas-low warnings per chain and a total PYUSD balance aggregated across the entire multi-chain portfolio.

Search & Navigation

19 CHAINS + ENS + WEB2 UNIFIED

The address bar searches all 19 deployed chain registries in parallel, ENS on Ethereum, and DuckDuckGo Instant Answers for web2 results — all in a single query. Results appear with colored chain-source badges (ARB, BASE, POL, ENS, WEB) and are ranked by a composite score: keyword match count × 1000 + traffic × 10 + recency factor.

When multiple results exist for the same name across different chains, they are presented as a selection list. Filter tabs allow narrowing results to a specific chain or source type. Reverse resolution converts any wallet address to its registered name.

Web2 domains typed in the address bar that have a SovereignRegistry record resolve to their web3 content. Domains without a record load normally from the web.

AI Builder & Agents

MULTI-PROVIDER · ON-CHAIN BILLING

Sovereign Browser includes a built-in AI chat interface supporting multiple providers: Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT-4, Google Gemini, and local Ollama models. API keys are stored encrypted in local SQLite — never sent to any Sovereign Browser server (there are none).

The AI Builder allows creating autonomous agents that interact with web pages on your behalf: filling forms, scraping content, clicking elements, and executing workflows. Agents run at $0.10 PYUSD per minute of active runtime, billed on-chain via the AgentWallet contract with configurable spending limits and automatic settlement.

The Label Element feature lets you tag any UI element on any page — capturing its coordinates, CSS selector, page URL, and a description. Labeled elements export as JSON, which agents can consume as a structured map of the interface for automation.

Referral System

ON-CHAIN · ANTI-ABUSE · FREE PHRASE VOUCHERS

Platform operators and existing users can generate vanity referral codes (e.g. COFFEESHOP2024) directly from the app. Each code is stored on-chain in the ReferralRegistry contract and is strictly single-use — it is permanently consumed when redeemed.

When a new user installs Sovereign Browser, creates their wallet, and enters a referral code, both the referrer and the new user receive a Free Phrase NFT voucher. This voucher can be burned during phrase registration to waive the $100 PYUSD fee — one voucher, one free phrase, lifetime ownership.

Anti-abuse is enforced at three layers: on-chain (each wallet can only be referred once), device fingerprint (SHA-256 hash of hardware characteristics submitted on-chain — reinstalling the app does not reset this), and single-instance lock (Electron prevents two app instances running simultaneously).

Security Architecture

ENCRYPTION · ISOLATION · PRIVATE CONTRACTS

All sensitive data at rest uses AES-256-GCM encryption. Wallet private keys are protected by Argon2id key derivation combining your passphrase and PIN — the two factors are independent, so neither alone can decrypt the key. The encryption model uses three separate keys: credential key (from passphrase+PIN), platform key (derived from AdminRegistry contract address), and device key (from hardware fingerprint).

The Electron app uses strict contextIsolation with nodeIntegration: false. All IPC communication is mediated through a whitelisted preload.js with 132 explicit channels — no arbitrary Node.js access from the renderer. Local data (chats, agents, bookmarks, API keys) is stored in encrypted SQLite via better-sqlite3 with column-level encryption.

Deployed smart contracts are obfuscated before compilation — all function names, variable names, event names, and struct names are replaced with deterministic SHA-256 hashes. ABIs are encrypted with AES-256-GCM using the platform key derived from the AdminRegistry address and bundled in the Electron app. Outside callers cannot call platform contracts without the ABI, and the ABI is only decryptable by the running app after wallet unlock.

Marketplace

BUY · SELL · P2P TRADES

Phrase handles, domains, site NFTs, and user-created tokens are all tradeable on the built-in Sovereign Browser marketplace. Listings are created by approving the Marketplace contract as a transfer operator, then calling createListing() with a price in PYUSD and an expiry duration.

For phrase handle, domain, and site NFT sales: the buyer pays the listed price plus a flat $50 PYUSD transfer fee. The seller receives 100% of the listed price. The platform receives the $50 transfer fee. Token and other NFT sales use a percentage fee model (10% platform fee deducted from proceeds).

Peer-to-peer atomic trades allow direct wallet-to-wallet swaps with custom terms negotiated off-chain and settled atomically on-chain — both parties sign, the smart contract executes the exchange simultaneously, or neither transfer occurs.

Token Factory

DEPLOY ERC-20 TOKENS · NO CODE REQUIRED

Any user can deploy a custom ERC-20 token from within Sovereign Browser using the Token Factory. Configure: name, symbol, initial supply, whether the token is mintable after deployment, and whether it is burnable. The deployment fee is $99 PYUSD. Deployed tokens appear in the user's wallet and are listed in the marketplace by default.

Token addresses are indexed in the user's profile in SovereignRegistry, making them discoverable to other Sovereign Browser users. Token metadata resolves alongside name records in search results.

General

Sovereign Browser is a desktop application that combines a full web browser with a decentralized name registry, peer-to-peer hosting network, multi-chain wallet, and AI agent runtime. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Unlike regular browsers, it can resolve names registered on 19 EVM-compatible blockchains, host websites on a decentralized IPFS network, and let anyone visit those sites from any browser in the world — not just Sovereign Browser users.

No. The setup wizard guides you through every step: creating a wallet, writing down your recovery phrase, funding your wallet, and deploying your contracts. The app is designed so you never need to interact with a blockchain explorer, manage gas manually, or understand transaction internals. PYUSD can be funded directly from a PayPal wallet, making onboarding accessible to anyone who can use PayPal.

No. There is no Sovereign Browser server, database, or account system. All name records are stored on-chain across 19 blockchains. All site content is stored on IPFS and pinned by node operators. All wallet data is stored encrypted on your local machine. The app communicates directly with blockchain RPC endpoints and IPFS nodes. There is nothing to create an account with, nothing to log into, and no company that can access your data or take down your content.

Yes. Each pinner node in the hosting network runs an HTTP server. If you point your domain's DNS A record (in Namecheap, Cloudflare, GoDaddy, or any registrar) to a pinner node's IP address, any browser — Chrome, Safari, Firefox — can visit your web3 site. The pinner resolves your name from SovereignRegistry, fetches the IPFS content it already holds, and serves it as a standard HTTP response. Your visitor doesn't need Sovereign Browser, doesn't need a crypto wallet, and has no idea blockchain is involved.

Sovereign Browser supports 19 EVM-compatible chains: Arbitrum One (primary), Arbitrum Nova, Base, Optimism, Blast, Linea, Scroll, Mantle, Metis, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon PoS, Polygon zkEVM, Avalanche C-Chain, Fantom Opera, Celo, Cronos, Harmony ONE, Gnosis Chain, and Kava EVM. ENS on Ethereum is also supported for name resolution. When you register a name, you can choose any combination of chains — or all 19 at once.

The person who installs and deploys the contracts is the platform operator. Their wallet address becomes the operator of all deployed contracts — there is no "Sovereign Browser company" controlling the platform. The operator earns platform fees but cannot access user wallets, modify name records they don't own, delete content, or censor registrations. The contracts are immutable once deployed — not upgradeable, not pauseable by any party. The word "admin" does not appear in the user-facing interface.

Installation & Setup

Windows: Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, 4GB RAM minimum, 500MB disk space.
macOS: macOS 12 (Monterey) or later, Intel or Apple Silicon (universal binary), 4GB RAM minimum.
Linux: Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, Fedora 35+, or any modern distro with glibc 2.31+. AppImage, .deb, and .rpm packages available. 4GB RAM, 500MB disk space. No additional dependencies — Electron bundles its own runtime.

The setup wizard runs the first time you open Sovereign Browser. It walks you through:

Welcome — select your primary network (Arbitrum One for mainnet, Arbitrum Sepolia for testing)
Create Wallet — generates your 12-word recovery phrase (shown once — write it down), sets your 8-character PIN
Fund Wallet — shows your wallet address with live balance polling for all 20 chains. You must fund ETH/native tokens on each chain before deployment can begin
Deploy Contracts — deploys 18 steps: 12 contracts on Arbitrum, SovereignRegistry on all 19 secondary chains, wiring, and address saving. Takes 2-3 minutes
Fund Gas Pool — funds the Paymaster contract with ETH so users never pay gas directly
Ready — platform is live

All contract addresses are written to .env automatically. You never need to copy-paste an address.

Approximately $40–50 USD in gas across all chains, paid in each chain's native token. Arbitrum One needs ~0.01 ETH (~$25) for 12 contract deployments. Base and Polygon each need ~0.003 ETH (~$7 each). Other chains need ~0.003 in their native token (MATIC, BNB, AVAX, etc.). The fund wallet screen shows each chain's live balance and minimum required with specific instructions for where to buy or bridge each token. The preflight check verifies all 20 chains are funded before any deployment begins — there are no partial deploys.

Yes. Select Arbitrum Sepolia (testnet) on the Welcome step of the setup wizard. The app deploys to Sepolia instead of mainnet. Free testnet ETH is available from faucets — the wizard provides a link automatically if your balance is insufficient. Testnet deployments use the same code as mainnet. When you're ready to go live, run a fresh install and select Arbitrum One.

Yes. Your recovery phrase is all you need. During reinstall, instead of generating a new wallet, import your existing 12-word phrase. All your on-chain assets (name NFTs, balances, hosting) are tied to your wallet address — not to the app installation. The app itself holds no data that isn't recoverable from your seed phrase. Note: the referral code redemption device lock is on-chain and tied to your hardware fingerprint — reinstalling does not reset it, by design.

Wallet & Keys

Your private keys are stored exclusively on your local machine, encrypted with AES-256-GCM. The encryption key is derived from your passphrase and PIN combined using Argon2id — a memory-hard key derivation function that is intentionally slow and GPU-resistant. The passphrase and PIN are never stored anywhere — they are hashed one-way using Argon2id. Keys never leave your machine. There is no server, no cloud backup, and no third party that can access or recover them.

The PIN cannot be recovered — it is not stored anywhere in any recoverable form. If you forget your PIN, you must restore from your 12-word recovery phrase. Import the phrase into a fresh wallet, set a new PIN. All your on-chain assets are tied to the wallet address, not to the PIN, so nothing is lost from the blockchain. This is why writing your recovery phrase down on paper and storing it safely is critical — it is the only backup that exists.

Yes. All 19 supported chains are EVM-compatible. Your wallet uses the standard BIP-44 derivation path, which generates the same address on every EVM chain from the same seed phrase. When you fund your wallet, you send to the same address on each network — just selecting the correct network in your exchange or bridge. Your PYUSD balance on Arbitrum, your MATIC on Polygon, and your BNB on BSC all belong to the same address, visible in the Wallet panel filtered by chain.

Copy your wallet address from the Wallet panel. In the PayPal app, go to Crypto → PYUSD → Send. Paste your wallet address and select Arbitrum as the network. PYUSD sent from PayPal to your Arbitrum address arrives directly in Sovereign Browser. This is the fastest, cheapest onramp — no exchange account required, no KYC beyond what you already have with PayPal. PYUSD on Arbitrum is the primary fee currency for all platform operations.

Yes. The Wallet panel queries all 19 chains in parallel and displays PYUSD balance and native gas token balance per chain, with a total PYUSD balance at the top. Filter tabs let you view All chains, Funded only (chains with non-zero PYUSD), or Gas Low (chains where native gas balance is below 0.001). A warning banner appears at the top if any chain is running low on gas.

Names, Handles & Domains

Phrase handle ($100 PYUSD): A freeform text string of any length, like big dude coffee chicago or alice1. Resolves directly to whatever you point it at — IPFS site, HTTP URL, Arweave content, etc. Each word is indexed in the on-chain keyword search index, making your phrase discoverable by anyone searching for those words.

TLD ($500 PYUSD): A top-level domain like .dude or .coffee. You own it and set the price for domain registrations under it. You earn 90% of each registration fee; 10% goes to the platform. TLDs are tradeable NFTs.

Domain (TLD price): A domain under an existing TLD, like hi.dude. Priced by the TLD owner. Same resolver type support as phrase handles.

Yes. In the registration form, select any combination of chains using the chain selector — or click "All 19 chains" to register everywhere simultaneously. Each registration is an independent transaction on each chain. The form shows a per-chain fee estimate and a running total before you commit. Registrations on different chains are separate NFTs — one might resolve to your IPFS site and another to your HTTP URL, or they can all point to the same content.

Nine resolver types are supported:

IPFS — IPFS content hash (e.g. ipfs://QmAbc...)
HTTP — Standard web URL (e.g. https://bigdude.coffee)
IPNS — IPFS Name System key (mutable pointer to IPFS content)
ARWEAVE — Arweave transaction ID (permanent storage)
API — API endpoint URL
GRAPHQL — GraphQL endpoint
WEBSOCKET — WebSocket endpoint
LOCALHOST — Local development endpoint
ENCRYPTED — AES-256-GCM encrypted resolver, private on-chain

No. Name registrations in Sovereign Browser are permanent lifetime ownership — no expiry, no renewal fees, no annual cost. Once you pay the registration fee and the NFT is minted to your wallet, you own it forever. This is different from ENS and most DNS-based systems that require annual renewal. The only recurring cost is optional: hosting fees if you want your site pinned by the network. Name ownership itself is permanent.

Yes. All name NFTs are tradeable on the built-in marketplace. For phrase handles, domains, and site NFTs: list at your asking price. The buyer pays your listed price plus a flat $50 PYUSD transfer fee. You receive 100% of your listed price. The $50 fee goes to the platform. Peer-to-peer trades are also supported — negotiate terms off-chain and execute an atomic on-chain swap so neither party can be cheated.

When you register a phrase, each word in the phrase is hashed and stored in an inverted index mapping on SovereignRegistry. When a user searches for coffee chicago, the browser queries the registry for both coffee and chicago, finds all names that contain either word, and scores them by how many of the search words they match. A phrase containing both words scores higher than one containing only one. Traffic data and registration age influence secondary ranking.

Yes, in two ways. Option 1 (recommended): Register your web2 domain as a phrase or domain record in SovereignRegistry. Set the resolver to IPFS or HTTP. Any Sovereign Browser user who types your domain sees the web3 version. Option 2 (any browser): Point your domain's DNS A record to any pinner node's IP address in your registrar's control panel. The pinner node reads your SovereignRegistry record and serves your IPFS content to any browser — Chrome, Safari, Firefox. No Sovereign Browser needed for visitors.

Hosting Network

Any Sovereign Browser user can become a pinner by staking $5 PYUSD into the HostingNetwork contract. After a 24-hour warmup period, the pinner begins accepting site assignments. Each site is replicated across 10 active pinners simultaneously. The pinner runs the hosting-monitor process in the background — it tracks incoming requests, monitors network uptime, and automatically submits traffic reports on the 1st of each month. Revenue from hosting fees is distributed proportionally: 90% to the 10 pinners equally, 10% protocol fee.

Four tiers based on storage size:

Starter — $50/year for 50MB
Basic — $90/year for 100MB
Standard — $160/year for 200MB
Pro — $280/year for 500MB

Upgrading is prorated — you pay only the difference for the remaining period. There is a 15-day grace period after expiry before content is unpinned. Sites can be renewed at any time. Payment is in PYUSD or native chain token.

Go to the Hosting panel in Sovereign Browser. Click "Stake $5 PYUSD to Join." Your node enters a 24-hour warmup period (to prevent instability from immediate load). After warmup, your node begins receiving site assignments and accumulating PYUSD earnings. Claim earnings at any time from the Hosting panel. Your node must maintain uptime — the network monitors all pinners every 20 minutes and marks inactive nodes as offline, distributing their stake to the reporter.

Every active pinner node runs an HTTP server alongside the IPFS daemon. When a browser requests a domain that points to a pinner's IP address, the pinner reads the HTTP Host header, queries SovereignRegistry via ethers.js to look up the name record, fetches the IPFS content from its local pin store, and streams it back to the browser as a standard HTTP response. DNS name lookups are cached for 60 seconds to reduce RPC calls. HTTPS is supported when TLS certificates are configured. The visitor's browser has no awareness of blockchain or IPFS.

Sites are replicated across 10 pinners simultaneously for redundancy. If one pinner goes offline, the other 9 continue serving the content. The network's uptime monitoring system detects the offline node within 20 minutes (3 failed pings, 1 minute apart). The node's stake is slashed and redistributed. A replacement pinner is assigned from the active pool. Your site remains accessible throughout this process from the other 9 nodes. Point your DNS to multiple pinner IPs for additional redundancy at the DNS layer.

The SiteBackup contract stores files permanently in Arbitrum transaction calldata — the data is immutably embedded in the Arbitrum blockchain forever, independent of any IPFS node or hosting subscription. Before storage, files are encrypted with AES-256-GCM using your platform key. The fee is 1.5× the estimated gas cost in PYUSD. The contract maintains a ring buffer of the last 3 backup versions per site, so you can retrieve any of the last 3 snapshots at any time.

Fees & Payments

PYUSD is PayPal USD — a USD-pegged stablecoin issued by PayPal. $1 PYUSD = $1 USD, always. It's used as the primary fee currency because it's the only stablecoin with a direct onramp from PayPal's 400 million user accounts — no exchange account, no KYC beyond existing PayPal verification. PYUSD is an ERC-20 token available on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Base. It can also be purchased on Uniswap, Coinbase, and most major exchanges.

Phrase handle registration: $100 PYUSD per chain (or free with a referral voucher)
TLD registration: $500 PYUSD
Domain registration: TLD owner's set price (TLD owner earns 90%, platform 10%)
Site NFT minting: Free
Hosting — Starter: $50/year (50MB)
Hosting — Basic: $90/year (100MB)
Hosting — Standard: $160/year (200MB)
Hosting — Pro: $280/year (500MB)
Token deployment: $99 PYUSD
Agent runtime: $0.10 PYUSD per minute
On-chain backup: 1.5× gas estimate in PYUSD
Marketplace — name/domain/site sale: $50 PYUSD transfer fee (on top of listing price, paid by buyer)
Marketplace — token/NFT sale: 10% platform fee (deducted from proceeds)

Yes. All platform fees can be paid in the native token of the chain you're operating on — ETH on Arbitrum/Base, MATIC on Polygon, BNB on BSC, AVAX on Avalanche, etc. — as an alternative to PYUSD. The fee is calculated as 1.5× the actual gas cost for the transaction (estimated using the Chainlink ETH/USD price feed for accuracy). Of the total payment, 1/3 goes directly to the operator wallet and the remaining covers gas. The PYUSD path is preferred if you have it — the native token path is provided as a fallback for users who haven't yet acquired PYUSD.

For transactions on Arbitrum (the primary chain), no. The EIP-4337 Paymaster handles gas — you pay in PYUSD as part of the transaction fee and the Paymaster pays ETH gas on your behalf. For transactions on secondary chains (Base, Polygon, BSC, etc.) where no Paymaster is deployed, you pay gas normally in the chain's native token. The platform fee on those chains is calculated in advance and shown before you confirm, using Chainlink price feeds for accurate USD conversion.

When selling a phrase handle, domain, or site NFT: you (the seller) set your asking price. The buyer pays your asking price plus a flat $50 PYUSD transfer fee on top. You receive 100% of your asking price. The platform receives the $50 transfer fee. Example: you list your handle at $200 PYUSD → buyer pays $250 total → you receive $200, platform receives $50. This fee model only applies to name and site NFT transfers. Token sales use a percentage model (10% deducted from sale price).

Referral System

Go to the Referrals tab in Sovereign Browser. Create a vanity referral code — any alphanumeric string 4–32 characters, like MYCOFFEESHOP or ALICE2025. Share that code with a friend. When your friend installs Sovereign Browser, creates a wallet, and enters your code in the Referrals tab, the smart contract marks the code as used and mints one Free Phrase NFT voucher to both your wallet and your friend's wallet. This voucher can be used once to register a phrase handle for free — the normal $100 PYUSD fee is waived.

Yes. You can create unlimited referral codes — one per friend you want to refer. Each code is stored on-chain and tied to your wallet. Each code is strictly single-use — once a friend redeems it, it is permanently consumed and cannot be reused. You can see all your codes in the Referrals panel: which are still unused (green) and which have been redeemed (shown with the redemption date).

No. Each code is strictly single-use by design. The first person to redeem a code consumes it permanently. If you want to refer multiple people, create a separate code for each person. This prevents abuse where a single code could generate unlimited free phrase vouchers.

A Free Phrase NFT is a soulbound (non-transferable) voucher stored in the ReferralRegistry contract as a balance on your wallet address. When you register a phrase handle in the Names & Handles panel, the form automatically detects if you have a voucher and shows a "Use free" toggle. Enable it to waive the $100 PYUSD registration fee — the contract burns one voucher from your balance and mints the phrase NFT at no cost. One voucher = one free phrase, one time.

No. Three independent mechanisms prevent this: (1) The smart contract rejects redemption of your own code — the redeemer's address cannot match the referrer's address. (2) Each wallet address can only be referred once — creating a second wallet and redeeming from it won't work if the device fingerprint was already used. (3) The device fingerprint — a SHA-256 hash of hardware characteristics (machine UUID, CPU, MAC address) — is submitted on-chain during redemption. Each hardware device can only redeem one referral code. Reinstalling the app does not reset the on-chain device record.

No. Referral codes do not expire. They remain valid until redeemed. Since name registrations and vouchers are permanent (no renewal fees), the free phrase earned from a referral is also permanent lifetime ownership. The code itself remains on-chain indefinitely until used.

Security & Privacy

Your wallet uses three layers of protection: (1) Argon2id for passphrase and PIN hashing — memory-hard and GPU-resistant, making brute force computationally impractical. (2) AES-256-GCM for encrypting the private key at rest — industry standard symmetric encryption with authentication. (3) Two-factor unlock — passphrase + PIN are derived independently and combined; neither alone can unlock the wallet. The wallet locks automatically. Private keys are only held in memory while the wallet is unlocked and are cleared from memory on lock.

All data is stored locally in encrypted SQLite on your machine. This includes: chat history, agent definitions, bookmarks, API keys, site profiles, labeled elements, notifications. None of this data is sent to any Sovereign Browser server — there are none. The only network communication is: blockchain RPC calls (to your configured RPC endpoints), IPFS node communication (to the hosting network), and AI API calls (directly to your configured AI provider using your own API key). All on-chain data you write (name records, resolver values) is encrypted with your platform key before submission if you choose the encrypted resolver type.

The smart contracts are deployed on public blockchains and can be verified on-chain. However, the source code is intentionally obfuscated before compilation — all function names, event names, variable names, and struct names are replaced with deterministic SHA-256 hashes. The source is not submitted to Etherscan for verification. The compiled ABI is encrypted with AES-256-GCM and bundled within the Electron app, decryptable only at runtime by the authenticated app. This prevents outside parties from calling contracts or reading business logic. The obfuscation does not affect functionality — the contracts operate identically to non-obfuscated versions.

The platform is source-available for review but not open-source licensed for redistribution or modification. The contract obfuscation and ABI encryption are intentional protective measures — making the codebase fully open-source would defeat the purpose of contract privacy. The architecture, data flows, and security model are fully documented in this FAQ and the About page for transparency.

No. Smart contracts are deployed as immutable, non-upgradeable contracts. The operator cannot modify name records they don't own, transfer names without the owner's signature, delete IPFS content (which is distributed across 10 independent pinners), or change the fee structure retroactively. The only actions the operator wallet can take are: collecting platform fees, adjusting configurable fee parameters (like the transfer fee amount), and managing the paymaster gas pool. Name ownership is cryptographically enforced by the blockchain — not by the operator's goodwill.

Technical

Electron — desktop app shell (Chromium + Node.js)
React + Vite — sidebar UI with React Router
ethers.js v6 — blockchain interactions
better-sqlite3 — local encrypted database
Solidity 0.8.20 — smart contracts
Hardhat — contract compilation and testing
EIP-4337 (Account Abstraction) — gasless transactions via Pimlico bundler
IPFS / Kubo — decentralized content storage
Argon2id — passphrase hashing
AES-256-GCM — symmetric encryption

EIP-4337 is the Ethereum account abstraction standard. It allows smart contract wallets to pay gas fees in ERC-20 tokens (like PYUSD) instead of ETH, and enables gasless transactions where a third party (the Paymaster) pays the gas on behalf of the user. In Sovereign Browser, this means users on Arbitrum never need to hold ETH to interact with the platform — all fees are paid in PYUSD, and the platform operator's Paymaster contract handles ETH gas automatically. The Paymaster is funded by the operator and replenished from platform fee revenue.

When you type in the address bar, the browser first checks if it's an exact on-chain name match (checks all 19 chain registries in parallel via ethers.js). If a match is found, it loads directly. If no exact match, it performs a keyword search across all 19 chains and ENS. If keyword results exist, a search results page is shown with chain-source badges and relevance ranking. If no web3 results, it queries DuckDuckGo's Instant Answer API for web2 results. If that also returns nothing, it falls back to loading the URL as a standard HTTP/HTTPS request. Resolution results are cached for 60 seconds.

When you start an agent, the AgentWallet smart contract is funded with a spending limit you set in PYUSD. The agent runtime bills $0.10 PYUSD per minute of active execution. Charges are debited from the AgentWallet balance in real-time. When the balance is exhausted or you stop the agent, a settlement transaction is executed on-chain. You can set per-transaction and per-session spending limits on the AgentWallet contract to cap potential costs. The billing dashboard in the Agents panel shows live runtime cost and accumulated charges.

Yes. All RPC URLs are configurable in the .env file and via the Settings panel. Set ARBITRUM_RPC_URL, BASE_RPC_URL, POLYGON_RPC_URL, etc. to your own node URLs or private RPC endpoints (Alchemy, Infura, QuickNode, etc.). Using your own endpoints improves privacy (public RPC providers log your wallet address and query patterns), improves reliability, and can improve performance. All 19 chains have configurable RPC URLs plus fallback defaults if not set.

The setup wizard deploys contracts from inside the running Electron app using pure ethers.js — no Hardhat required at runtime. To do this, the compiled contract bytecode (ABI + bytecode) must be bundled with the app. The contracts-bytecode.js file contains this pre-compiled bytecode. It is generated by running cd contracts && npx hardhat compile && node scripts/extract-bytecode.js before packaging the app. If this file is missing, the setup wizard will error immediately with instructions to compile first.

Own Your
Web Presence

About Sovereign Browser

What is Sovereign Browser?

Name & Handle Registry

◈ Phrase Handles — $100 PYUSD

◉ TLD Registration — $500 PYUSD

◎ Domains — TLD price

🌐 Multi-Chain Registration

Supported Blockchains

Decentralized Hosting Network

Four Hosting Tiers

HTTP Gateway — Any Browser

Traffic Reporting

On-Chain File Backup

Wallet & Payments

Search & Navigation

AI Builder & Agents

Referral System

Security Architecture

Marketplace

Token Factory

Frequently Asked Questions

Support

Discord Community

GitHub Issues

Documentation

Own YourWeb Presence

About Sovereign Browser

What is Sovereign Browser?

Name & Handle Registry

◈ Phrase Handles — $100 PYUSD

◉ TLD Registration — $500 PYUSD

◎ Domains — TLD price

🌐 Multi-Chain Registration

Supported Blockchains

Decentralized Hosting Network

Four Hosting Tiers

HTTP Gateway — Any Browser

Traffic Reporting

On-Chain File Backup

Wallet & Payments

Search & Navigation

AI Builder & Agents

Referral System

Security Architecture

Marketplace

Token Factory

Frequently Asked Questions

Support

Discord Community

GitHub Issues

Documentation

Own Your
Web Presence