Attestor Network and FROST
Attestor Network
The Attestor Network is the set of independent institutional operators that verify eligible Bitcoin events and participate in threshold authorization for CBTC custody workflows. Operator membership and signing policy can change, so check the maintained security reference for current operating details.
What FROST does
FROST is a threshold Schnorr signing protocol. Signing authority is distributed across key shares. A configured threshold of participants cooperates to produce one valid signature without reconstructing the complete private key in one place.
A threshold signature appears as a standard Schnorr signature to Bitcoin verifiers. The security benefit comes from how the signing capability is distributed and operated, not from a special transaction type.
What FROST does not do
FROST does not by itself:
Verify that a deposit or redemption request is valid.
Decide which Bitcoin transaction should be signed.
Protect a compromised operator application from approving bad input.
Guarantee service availability.
Replace monitoring, policy, access control, or incident response.
Workflow boundary
The system identifies an eligible Bitcoin or redemption event.
Operators independently receive the approved signing context.
Each participant applies the current verification and authorization policy.
The required threshold contributes valid signing material.
The protocol produces a Bitcoin-valid signature.
The signed transaction or authorization result proceeds through the workflow.
Key lifecycle
The key lifecycle includes generation, share distribution, storage, backup, rotation, participant replacement, lost-share response, and decommissioning. Rotation and membership changes follow coordinated production procedures and may require a maintenance window.
Availability and failure
The network can continue only while enough eligible participants and required services are available under the active policy. One unavailable operator does not necessarily stop the network. Check the current service reference for applicable availability targets.
Operator trust boundary
Each operator must protect its infrastructure, credentials, key share, software supply chain, and verification process. Independent operation reduces unilateral control. It does not remove the need to evaluate correlated failures or common software dependencies.
Related pages
Next step
👉 Review the complete control model: CBTC security.
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