A Field Note · A 28x Standard · Built on Algorand
A two-layer architecture for provable private presence — public proof on Algorand, private content owned by the family.
Version: 0.1 Draft · Epoch: 28X-0000-01-01 · Status: Active
The Problem
The problem
For generations, the record of a child's learning has lived in institutions — schools, districts, testing companies — that families never controlled and rarely benefited from. This data is among the most intimate generated at scale, yet families have had no sovereign infrastructure to hold it.
Every platform that offers to store family data today operates on the same model: collect privately, profit centrally. The family generates the data. The platform owns it. There is no architectural alternative that preserves both the intimacy of the content and the provability of the practice.
The ProposalThe proposal
A Field Note (AFN) is a family-generated moment — a voice note, a photograph, a written observation — that produces two distinct artifacts with a cryptographic relationship between them.
Proof of Presence
Minted as an Algorand Standard Asset at the moment of capture. Contains: 28x timestamp coordinate, guide character identifier, season identifier, content hash, family wallet address. Contains no private content.
28X-YYYY-MM-DD · on-chain · permanent
The Moment Itself
Voice recording, transcript, photographs, guide response, child observations. Encrypted before leaving the family's device. Stored in a location only the family can decrypt. Never transmitted in plaintext.
encrypted · family-keyed · yours forever
Before this architecture, you had to choose: prove something happened, or keep it private. The AFN eliminates that tradeoff. Your family can prove presence — to a school, a credential system, your future selves — without revealing what was said. The proof and the content are permanently linked but independently held.
That is a new thing in the world.
The epoch
AFN Season 1 begins on 28X-0000-01-01 — the first day of Year 0000 in the 28x temporal standard. Gregorian equivalent: March 20, 2026.
Field notes minted from this date carry a 28x coordinate in their on-chain metadata, anchoring them permanently to the new temporal record. The first Field Notes are not just family artifacts — they are the first entries in a new way of marking time.
Reference ImplementationReference implementation
Bēhere is the first AFN-compliant application. It launches on Year 0000 Day 1 — March 20, 2026 — with families in Santa Barbara County, California.
Bēhere runs outdoor enrichment programs and a family field note app. Families choose a character guide — A. Snake, Nortina, Trunq, or Xero — and capture daily moments together. Each capture produces an AFN: private content held by the family, public proof minted on Algorand.
Season 2 — Completing the StackSeason 2: completing the privacy stack
The AFN standard is designed for progressive privacy implementation. Season 1 establishes the public proof layer and family wallet architecture on Algorand.
Season 2 introduces blind compute via Nillion Network — storing decryption keys in a compute environment where no single party can reconstruct them unilaterally. The family's Algorand wallet address serves as the access credential. At full implementation, no party — including Bēhere — holds the content, the key, and the proof simultaneously.
Family device → [encrypted content] → Cloudflare R2
Family device → [decryption key] → Nillion (wallet-gated)
Family device → [content hash] → Algorand (AFN token)
An open standard
The AFN standard is proposed as an open protocol. Other applications, developers, and educational institutions are invited to build AFN-compliant implementations. The specification will be maintained and versioned at 28x.org.
If you are building something that could benefit from provable private presence — for families, learners, communities — we want to hear from you.
Contact: matthew@mjl.re
This is version 0.1 of the AFN standard. It is a living document. Feedback and implementations welcome.