Bestower Labs
Secured by work,
governed by stake
A Layer 1 blockchain, written in Rust from scratch.
Fungible tokens and an automated market maker are consensus-level primitives here — not contracts deployed on top. Nothing is bridged, nothing is wrapped. A token trades natively on the chain that issued it.
No bridges. No wrapped assets.
Weighing stake…
How it works
Two mechanisms,
one block
Proof of stake decides who proposes. Proof of work decides when it's settled. Neither one carries the chain alone.
Stake proposes
A verifiable random function picks the next proposer, weighted by stake. Every node computes the same answer independently — no coordination round, no committee vote.
Work seals
The chosen validator searches for a hash that satisfies the current difficulty, then signs the block. Cheap enough for any CPU, expensive enough that a block cannot be rewritten for free.
Depth confirms
A block is final once six more sit on top of it — roughly ninety seconds. Fork choice will not rewrite finalised history, and a validator that signs two blocks at one height loses its stake.
Running today
What's built
None of this is a roadmap item. Each line runs on the development network now and is covered by the test suite.
Status
Live. Hikmalayer's mainnet is running — producing blocks continuously, finalising them on schedule, and reachable by anyone.
Watch it happen in real time at dashboard.hikmalayer.com.
No token is being offered or sold. When that changes it will be announced here and on X — not in a direct message.
Built for the quantum era
Two locks,
not one
A quantum computer capable of breaking today's signatures does not exist yet. Data recorded now, though, can be kept until one does. An account on Hikmalayer can be protected by two independent signature schemes — an attacker has to break both.
secp256k1
The elliptic-curve signature used by Bitcoin, Ethereum and most of the industry. Secure against every classical computer, and well understood after fifteen years of public scrutiny.
- Signature
- 64 bytes
- Public key
- 65 bytes
ML-DSA-65
The post-quantum signature standard published by NIST as FIPS 204, at security category 3. Its security rests on lattice problems that a quantum computer is not known to solve.
- Signature
- 3,309 bytes
- Public key
- 1,952 bytes
Both must verify
The account address commits to both public keys, so substituting either one names a different account. Breaking one scheme is not enough — an attacker needs both, and the account stays secure while either holds.
- Address
- hkq…
- Cost
- ~5.3 KB per transaction
What this does not cover
Quantum-ready accounts are a choice, not a default. They are larger and
slower, so users opt in. An account on the standard hkm
format carries the same exposure as any other blockchain.
One component is not yet post-quantum: the function that selects which validator proposes the next block. A quantum computer could predict whose turn is coming, but could not forge a signature, fake a block or move anyone's coins — those are protected separately. The standards bodies have not settled on a post-quantum approach for that piece, and we would rather wait for the standard than invent one.
Two locks protect against the mathematics being broken. They do not protect against malware on your own machine, being tricked into approving something, or losing your key.
Proof of credential
Verify a certificate
without publishing it
Degree fraud is an industry. Verifying a qualification still often means emailing a records office and waiting days. Hikmalayer treats credentials as consensus objects — and never puts the document itself on the chain.
Issue
The institution signs a credential and records it. What goes on chain is a fingerprint of the document, not the document. No personal data is published.
Hold
The graduate keeps the certificate itself. They decide who sees it, and nothing about them is publicly readable on the chain.
Verify
Anyone given the document can fingerprint it and compare against the chain. A match proves it has not changed since it was signed — with no call to the institution.
Revoke
If a qualification is withdrawn, the institution revokes it. That is a signed action recorded on chain too, so verification reflects it immediately.
The altered copy differs from the original by one word — a grade changed. Every character of the fingerprint changes with it, so the forgery is caught in under a second by anyone holding the document.
Who it's for
Built where it's
needed most
Most blockchain infrastructure assumes a user with a bank account, cheap settlement and a stable currency. Hikmalayer is designed for people who have none of the three.
Game studios
In-game economies without Solidity or gas costs that exceed the value of the item being traded.
Payments and fintech
Cross-border transfer that settles in about ninety seconds, in markets where the alternative takes days.
Validators
Ordinary CPU hardware is enough. No specialised mining rig, no data-centre budget.
Builders
A chain that isn't already crowded, with a team you can actually reach.
Who's behind it
The founder
Ayan Rao
Founder & Director, Bestower Labs
Bestower Labs builds foundational digital trust infrastructure for the next generation of the internet. As AI transforms how content is created and distributed, the digital economy needs verifiable authenticity, accountable AI, and verification that scales.
Hikmalayer is the Layer 1 underneath that — secure anchoring and governance. Alongside it, Hikmaon combines cryptographic proof, real-time monitoring and AI detection to protect digital ownership and prevent misuse.
Through Metacation and our AI agent work, we build LLM-powered systems while equipping the next generation with practical skills in blockchain, AI, Web3 and robotics — positioned at the intersection of innovation, responsibility and scale, and aligned with the UK's priorities on AI governance and digital safety.
"I believe the future of AI must be anchored securely and responsibly."
Get involved
Follow the build
We post progress as it happens, including the parts that break.