TACo | Cryptographic Public Good
End-to-end Encrypted. End-to-end Secured. End-to-end Decentralized.
TACo – Threshold Access Control – is a free and open source public good; cryptographic infrastructure to undergird a non-surveilling, non-rent-seeking, non-exploitative internet.
The TACo project is now under the stewardship of the World Ethical Data Foundation. Although operators may choose to continue running TACo node clients in the interim, a stable version of the service will be relaunched in Q3 2026 – centered around a Privacy Coalition. If you represent an organization in the domains of privacy advocacy, anti-surveillance, human rights, encryption/whistleblower technology, or pertinent academic research, and would like to be involved, please get in touch.
From an app developer's perspective, TACo is a straightforward and affordable plugin. Once integrated, TACo can enforce user-authored policies over who or what can access sensitive data – without single points of failure, data custodians, or centralized authorities.
This is possible thanks to the TACo network; an array of independently-controlled nodes each running the TACo client. Apps that have integrated the plugin connect to the network via the taco-web API. Groups of TACo nodes respond to user requests by collectively validating sharing or policies. Specifically, nodes individually verify the requestor's fulfillment of pre-specified conditions, before providing the necessary fragment of decryption material, enabling the requestor's access.
Without relying on centralized servers, TACo empowers the application user to truly control the conditions under which their data is accessible: by whom, for how long, and contingent on any digital source of truth.
For example: share my archive of evidence with journalists if I do not check-in over the next 7 days.
There is also an experimental variant of TACo centered around conditions-based signing. For more information, see Threshold Action Control.
I'm interested in..
Running a TACo node
Support TACo's adopting applications by spinning up a low-memory, low-cost, low-maintenance node client.
Get Started Now
Quickstart Guide → Your first encrypted data sharing / automated signing flow - up and running in minutes.
Join the Community on Discord → Connect with developers, node operators, and the TACo team.
View TACo on GitHub → Explore the codebase, contribute, or file issues.
Last updated
