The Root Of TrustThe cryptography that keeps payments trustworthy.
Plain-English explainers on payment security, key management, and the trust layer of agentic commerce — for the people who build, secure, and lead in payments.
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A new whitepaper on payment security and AI agents
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Recent posts
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The HSM key hierarchy, explained
LMK, ZMK, TMK, BDK, DUKPT and the rest of the HSM key hierarchy — how one master key born inside the hardware quietly protects every other key in a payment.
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Key block formats, explained
TR-31, TR-34, Atalla and Thales key blocks compared side by side — what they are, how they differ, and where they live in a payment transaction.
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ECC, explained
Smaller keys, same strength. How elliptic curves sign and agree on secrets, where they run in payments, and a quick guide to the curves you'll meet.
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Monthly insights on payment security, cryptography, and what changes as AI agents start to pay.
About
Why "The Root Of Trust"
In cryptography, a root of trust is the anchor everything else chains back to — the one thing you have to trust for the rest to hold. Payments run on exactly that idea: keys, signatures, and scoped credentials that let strangers transact safely.
This is where I break that machinery down in plain English — EMV and HSMs, key management and tokenization, PCI and PIN security, and now the cryptographic trust layer that will decide whether AI agents can be trusted to pay.
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