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Dynamic Visual Cryptography

Interstellar integrates a novel form of Dynamic Visual Cryptography (DVC) as a human-centric defense layer for critical wallet interactions. This system uses cryptographic animation-like sequences called visual cryptographic shares to render transaction validation information in a way that is perceptible only to the human eye—yet meaningless to software or malware.

Core Principles​

Dynamic Visual Cryptography builds on the classic principles of visual secret sharing and persistence of vision:

  • A message (such as a one-time code) is split into multiple random-looking frames.
  • When rapidly displayed in sequence (e.g., 60–120 frames per second), the human eye combines them into a recognizable image.
  • Each individual frame appears as noise, and no useful information can be extracted from a single frame.

In Interstellar, the sequence of visual cryptographic shares is generated securely using a one-time garbled circuit anchored by a signature from the Secure Element. This guarantees the sequence is fresh, unique, and verifiable by the blockchain.

Security Model and Robustness​

Unlike classic OTP systems (e.g., Google Authenticator), where a 6-digit code can be intercepted and reused, Interstellar’s one-time visual code is:

  • Device-bound: It cannot be replayed or used from another device.
  • Session-specific: It’s valid only during a single transaction window.
  • Screen-bounded: Malware must reproduce the entire display logic frame-by-frame at high frequency to fake it.

This makes traditional phishing and overlay attacks impractical. An attacker would need to:

  • Design custom overlays for each unique VCA output.
  • Synchronize display frames at high framerate with unpredictable content.
  • Inject overlays precisely when the legitimate app is displaying the verification sequence.

Even if a 0-day vulnerability enables display hijacking or side-channel extraction, the benefit is limited: learning a one-time visual code has no reuse value. Moreover, these attacks are costly, difficult to scale, and economically irrational compared to targeting lower-security systems.

Interstellar raises the attack cost significantly, shifting the threat landscape in favor of defenders.

Future-Proofing Security​

Visual cryptography is information-theoretically secure (ITS) by design. While the current implementation focuses on defense against overlay attacks and localized malware, this foundation can be extended to support:

  • Secure visual communication channels
  • Cognitive challenge-response mechanisms
  • Advanced user profiling through interaction with dynamic visuals

This positions Dynamic Visual Cryptography not just as a defense mechanism, but as a core security primitive for the future of secure human-device interaction.

Summary​

Interstellar’s Dynamic Visual Cryptography introduces a human-visible, machine-invisible verification layer that turns each critical action into a cryptographically unique visual challenge. It removes the scalability and efficiency benefits attackers depend on—making exploitation technically complex, resource-intensive, and economically unjustifiable. As such, it forms a resilient base layer in Interstellar’s deep security stack, with the potential to enable next-generation behavioral authentication built natively on top.