draft-reilly-hdrp-00
IETF Internet-Draft · Experimental · July 2026

Hypercube Data Rotation Protocol Project Rubik's Cube — storage that turns like a combination puzzle

HDRP distributes erasure-coded data shards across the vertices of an n-dimensional hypercube, then periodically rotates their placement using automorphisms of the cube itself. Every rotation is committed to a hash-linked epoch ledger. Steal the shard map today — it's worthless by tomorrow.

Author: L. Reilly, Jr. · Independent
Status: Experimental · Expires 23 January 2027
Integrates: Project Looking Glass · Dual-Layer Digital Permanence
live demo — Q₄ topology, 16 shards RS(16,10) · tolerate 6 losses
epoch 0 · manual
epoch commitment ledgerSHA-256 ‖ SHA3-512 ‖ BLAKE3 ·
Each epoch is committed under three independent hash functions — SHA-256, SHA3-512, BLAKE3 — over the same linked payload. Advance the epoch, then verify the chain.
§ Abstract

The map never changes. That's the flaw.

Most distributed storage systems place data once and leave it there. An adversary who exfiltrates the placement map — the record of where every shard lives — holds valid reconnaissance indefinitely. The target is static.

HDRP makes the target move. Data objects are split into erasure-coded shards and assigned to the vertices of an n-dimensional binary hypercube running as a network topology on ordinary servers. On a fixed epoch schedule, shard placement is permuted through structured rotation operations — automorphisms of the hypercube graph — so adjacency is preserved, retrieval stays constant-time for authorized holders of the current epoch key, and previously captured placement intelligence goes stale.

Every rotation is committed to a verifiable, blockchain-anchorable epoch ledger, giving the system three properties in combination: storage-efficient fault tolerance, continuous cryptographic auditability, and moving target defense. Informally: the face turns of a combination puzzle, applied to a data topology, defined as a precise algebraic operation.

§ Mechanism

Four operations, one substrate

§4 · ENCODE

Shard

Each object is encoded with a maximum distance separable (MDS) erasure code — e.g. RS(16,10). Any 10 of 16 shards reconstruct the object. Lose six, lose nothing.

§5 · PLACE

Position

Shards map onto the 2ⁿ vertices of a binary hypercube Qₙ. Each vertex is an n-bit address; neighbors differ by one bit. In Q₄: 16 vertices, 32 edges, diameter 4.

§6 · ROTATE

Turn

Each epoch, a rotation drawn from the hypercube's automorphism group permutes shard placement. Structure is preserved — neighbors stay neighbors, nothing tears — but every address changes.

§7 · COMMIT

Prove

The rotation is committed under three independent hash functions — SHA-256, SHA3-512, and BLAKE3 — into a hash-linked epoch ledger, optionally anchored via Dual-Layer Digital Permanence — Bitcoin timestamping plus DOI archival. Every turn is auditable, forever.

§ Mathematics

The rotation is not a metaphor

The rotations of HDRP are elements of the hyperoctahedral group — the full automorphism group of the hypercube, of order 2ⁿ · n!. For Q₄ that is 384 distinct structure-preserving rotations: every combination of axis permutation and coordinate reflection.

Because every rotation is an automorphism, the routing properties the topology guarantees — logarithmic diameter, n disjoint paths between any two vertices — survive every turn. Retrieval cost never degrades. Only the adversary's map does.

The security posture follows the published Moving Target Defense literature: continually shifting the attack surface raises adversary work factor without changing defender cost. HDRP applies MTD not to networks or address space, but to the storage substrate itself.

topology binary hypercube Qₙ
vertices 2ⁿ (Q₄ = 16)
rotation group hyperoctahedral, |G| = 2ⁿ·n!
rotations in Q₄ 384
erasure code MDS, e.g. RS(16,10)
loss tolerance n−k = 6 of 16 shards
epoch schedule fixed interval (e.g. 24h)
commitment SHA-256 · SHA3-512 · BLAKE3, hash-linked
anchoring Bitcoin timestamp + DOI
  • Hypercube interconnection networks — decades of parallel-systems research on Qₙ routing, fault tolerance, and embedding.
  • Reed-Solomon erasure coding — RFC 5510; the MDS property underpinning the recovery threshold.
  • Hyperoctahedral automorphism group — graph theory of the n-cube (Harary, 2000).
  • Moving Target Defense — NIST / DHS research programs on dynamic attack-surface reconfiguration.
§ Suite Integration

One cube, five cooperating protocols

HDRP doesn't run alone. This deployment is a live composition of the Reilly Protocol Suite: the rotation substrate, a self-healing layer watching it, a sovereignty layer keeping a human in command, a symbiosis frame defining how human and agents share the loop, and a permanence layer making every turn anchorable. The mode switch above is not a UI convenience — it is the Sovereignty Fallback of draft-reilly-cogsov-00, running.

curation disclosure record — live agent activitydraft-reilly-cogsov-00 §4 (CDR)
Awaiting backend connection…
§ Verification & Permanence

Don't trust the claim. Check the record.

HDRP follows the same Dual-Layer Digital Permanence methodology as the rest of the suite: the specification is submitted to the IETF Datatracker, archived with a DOI, and verifiable through the live REM Protocol pipeline.