English

The Stateless Pattern: Ephemeral Coordination as the Third Pillar of Digital Sovereignty

Cryptography and Security 2026-01-28 v2

Abstract

For the past three decades, the architecture of the internet has rested on two primary pillars - communication on the World Wide Web and Value such as Bitcoin/Distributed ledgers. However, a third critical pillar, Private Coordination has remained dependent on centralised intermediaries, effectively creating a surveillance architecture by default. This paper introduces the 'Stateless Pattern', a novel network topology that replaces the traditional 'Fortress' security model (database-centric) with a 'Mist' model (ephemeral relays). By utilising client-side cryptography and self-destructing server instances, we demonstrate a protocol where the server acts as a blind medium rather than a custodian of state. We present empirical data from a live deployment (https://signingroom.io), analysing over 1,900 requests and cache-hit ratios to validate the system's 'Zero-Knowledge' properties and institutional utility. The findings suggest that digital privacy can be commoditised as a utility, technically enforcing specific articles of the universal declaration of human rights not through policy, but through physics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.17875,
  title  = {The Stateless Pattern: Ephemeral Coordination as the Third Pillar of Digital Sovereignty},
  author = {Sean Carlin and Kevin Curran},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.17875},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

The implementation is released under the AGPLv3 license at https://github.com/scarlin90/signingroom with source code publicly auditable at the associated GitHub repository, enabling independent verification and self-hosting for users requiring maximum sovereignty