Blockchain & Merkle Proofs¶

Vargate aggregates audit records into Merkle trees and anchors the tree roots to public blockchains. This creates an independently verifiable, immutable record of governance decisions.

Architecture¶

Audit Records → Hourly Merkle Trees → Blockchain Anchor → On-Chain Verification

1. Hourly Merkle trees — audit records are grouped into per-tenant Merkle trees every hour
2. Inclusion proofs — any record can be proven to exist in a tree with O(log n) proof
3. Blockchain anchor — the Merkle root is submitted to a smart contract on-chain
4. Verification — anyone can verify the on-chain root matches the local tree root

Supported Chains¶

Configure your chain preference:

curl -X PATCH https://vargate.ai/api/dashboard/settings \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"anchor_chain": "polygon"}'

Endpoints¶

Anchor Status¶

GET /anchor/status

Returns the current state of blockchain anchoring:

{
  "network": "polygon",
  "connected_chains": ["polygon"],
  "contract_address": "0xe742E768...",
  "anchor_count": 42,
  "last_anchor": {
    "merkle_root": "a1b2c3...",
    "tx_hash": "0xdef456...",
    "block_number": 12345678,
    "anchored_at": "2026-04-08T09:00:00Z"
  }
}

Verify On-Chain Anchor¶

GET /anchor/verify

Compares the local Merkle root against the on-chain value:

{
  "verified": true,
  "on_chain_root": "a1b2c3...",
  "local_root": "a1b2c3...",
  "tx_hash": "0xdef456..."
}

Trigger Manual Anchor¶

POST /anchor/trigger

Manually trigger an anchor cycle (normally runs on schedule):

{
  "status": "anchored",
  "merkle_root": "a1b2c3...",
  "tx_hash": "0xdef456..."
}

List Merkle Trees¶

GET /audit/merkle/roots

Returns all Merkle trees with their roots and record ranges:

{
  "trees": [
    {
      "tree_index": 0,
      "merkle_root": "a1b2c3...",
      "record_count": 50,
      "from_record_id": 1,
      "to_record_id": 50,
      "period_start": "2026-04-08T08:00:00Z",
      "period_end": "2026-04-08T09:00:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

Inclusion Proof¶

GET /audit/merkle/proof/{record_hash}

Get a Merkle inclusion proof for a specific audit record:

{
  "record_hash": "a1b2c3...",
  "merkle_root": "d4e5f6...",
  "proof": ["hash1", "hash2", "hash3"],
  "verified": true
}

Consistency Proof¶

GET /audit/merkle/consistency/{tree_n}/{tree_m}

Verify consistency between two Merkle tree periods. Proves that the earlier tree is a prefix of the later tree.

Compliance Export¶

GET /compliance/export/{tenant_id}?from=2026-01-01&to=2026-04-30&format=json

Export a complete compliance package containing:

• All audit records in the date range
• Hash chain verification result
• Merkle tree summary
• Blockchain anchor references with explorer links
• Sample inclusion proofs
• Policy snapshot

Supports format=json (default) and format=pdf.