Lit Protocol
P2P ProtocolsA decentralized key management and compute network using threshold cryptography and trusted execution environments (TEEs) to provide programmable signing, encryption, and access control across blockchains and off-chain platforms
Hybrid Company High capture risk
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Details
License Apache 2.0 / Permissive
Dev Status Released
Owner Lit Protocol (co-founded by David Sneider; backed by Lit Association)
Country USA
Start Year 2020
Stack Rust, JavaScript/TypeScript
Funding VC
Last Investigated Jan 15, 2026
P2P Protocol Attributes
P2P Architecture Mesh network + Public Blockchain (distributed network of sealed TEE nodes performing threshold cryptography; LITKEY staking on Base L2; reads on-chain state from multiple blockchains)
Overlay Network Global (Lit nodes form a global network; any node can participate in threshold signing/decryption for any request)
Content Addressing No (key management protocol; does not use content addressing for its core function)
Local-First N/A (network-dependent; signing and decryption require reaching threshold of distributed nodes)
E2EE Yes (core functionality: identity-based encryption where data is encrypted such that only users meeting specified access conditions can decrypt via Lit's threshold decryption)
CRDTs Lib N/A (not a data sync protocol)
Byzantine Fault Tolerance Yes (threshold cryptography inherently tolerates up to t-of-n node failures/misbehavior; nodes run in TEEs to prevent key extraction)
Signature BLS Threshold signature + ECDSA (distributed key generation produces threshold key shares; supports BLS, ECDSA secp256k1 signatures across multiple chains)
Permissions Cryptographic Capabilities (programmable access control conditions: on-chain state checks, token ownership, DAO membership, custom JavaScript logic in Lit Actions determine who can sign/decrypt)
Semantic Web Compatability N/A
Smart Contract Yes (LITKEY token and staking contracts on Base L2; Lit reads smart contract state on multiple chains to evaluate access control conditions)
Protocol Stack Position Application-layer (built on TCP/IP)
Asset / Value Embedding Native — LITKEY token is the protocol-native utility and governance token used to pay for threshold signing and decryption services, and staked by node operators (veLITKEY) to participate in the network. Launched on Lit's Chronicle chain.
Protocol Maturity / Standardization Proprietary Open Standard (published threshold cryptography protocol; company-developed with open documentation)