Documentation

Everything you need to build with Forum Protocol

Quick Start

Getting Started

Set up your first Forum integration in minutes

Technical Whitepaper

Deep dive into Forum's architecture and cryptography

Community Forum

Get help and share ideas with other developers

Core Concepts

System Architecture

Forum is built on a decentralized architecture combining Layer 2 Ethereum, IPFS for storage, and zero-knowledge proofs for privacy.

Layer 2 Ethereum

Optimistic rollups for scalable, low-cost transactions

IPFS Storage

Decentralized storage for poll metadata and results

P2P Network

Direct peer-to-peer communication for real-time updates

Smart Contracts

Audited contracts for vote tallying and reward distribution

Key Components

Identity Module

Handles passport verification and biometric checks

Social Graph

Manages vouching relationships and trust scores

Voting Engine

Processes votes with zero-knowledge proofs

Reward System

Distributes ETH bounties to participants

Cryptographic Primitives

Forum uses state-of-the-art cryptography to ensure security and privacy.

Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK-SNARKs)

Proves voter eligibility without revealing identity

prove(statement, witness) → proof

Elliptic Curve Cryptography

Secp256k1 for digital signatures and key generation

sign(message, privateKey) → signature

Homomorphic Encryption

Allows vote tallying on encrypted ballots

encrypt(vote) + encrypt(vote) = encrypt(sum)

Consensus Mechanism

Forum uses a hybrid consensus model combining on-chain and off-chain components.

On-Chain Consensus

• Vote commitments stored on Ethereum
• Smart contract enforced rules
• Immutable audit trail
• Automatic reward distribution

Off-Chain Computation

• ZK proof generation
• Vote aggregation
• Identity verification
• Social graph updates

Finality & Security

Votes achieve finality after 12 Ethereum block confirmations (~3 minutes).

Average Confirmation Time

~3 minutes

Privacy Guarantees

Forum provides multiple layers of privacy protection for users.

Vote Privacy

Individual votes are never linked to voter identities. Only aggregate results are public.

Identity Privacy

Passport data never leaves your device. Only cryptographic commitments are stored on-chain.

Network Privacy

Optional Tor integration and onion routing for network-level privacy.

Metadata Privacy

Timing attacks prevented through random delays and batch processing.

Forum

Forum voting platform built on Ethereum Layer 2