Crypto

Every Robomate carries a hardware security chip that gives it a unique, unforgeable identity. This connects the physical robot to a digital world of achievements, titles, and ratings.

Why a Crypto Chip?

Each Robomate has an ATECC508A secure element soldered onto the main PCB. Inside this chip lives a private key that was generated on-chip before the board was shipped. The key never leaves the chip — it cannot be read, copied, or extracted by anyone, including us.

This gives every robot a cryptographic identity that is tied to the physical hardware. No two robots share the same key, and no software can fake one.

Connecting Robots to a Digital World

Because every robot can prove who it is, we can build a digital layer on top of the physical game:

Achievements Earned by a specific robot and permanently linked to it

Titles Awarded for milestones — win streaks, tournaments, survival records

Game Ratings Elo-style rankings tracked per robot across games and sessions

History Match results and statistics tied to the robot's identity

None of this can be spoofed. A robot's achievements belong to the hardware, not to a user account that could be shared or duplicated.

How Signing Works

The security is based on ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) with the P-256 curve. Here's the process in simple terms:

Step	What Happens
1. Challenge	A server (or HQ) sends a random message to the robot — "prove you're real."
2. Sign	The ATECC508A chip takes that message and signs it using the private key stored inside. The private key never leaves the chip — only the signature comes out.
3. Verify	The server checks the signature against the robot's public key (which is known and safe to share). If it matches, the robot is authenticated.

Think of it like a wax seal on a letter. Only the person with the real stamp can make that exact imprint, but anyone can look at the seal and verify it's genuine. The stamp itself (private key) never has to be shown.

Why It's Safe

Key never leaves the chip The private key is generated inside the ATECC508A and cannot be read out — not by firmware, not by physical probing

Cannot be cloned Even with physical access to the PCB, the key cannot be extracted or duplicated

Replay-proof Each challenge is random, so recording old signatures is useless

Public key is safe to share Knowing the public key doesn't help an attacker — it can only verify, not create signatures

Key Provisioning

Before every main PCB is shipped, we run an on-chip key generation process. The ATECC508A generates a fresh key pair internally — the private key is locked inside forever, and the public key is exported and registered with our verification service.

A publicly available verification service will be created so that anyone — game servers, tournament organisers, or community tools — can confirm that a robot is genuine and its identity hasn't been tampered with.