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First page of PASS: A Provenanced Access Subaccount System for Blockchain Wallets

PASS: A Provenanced Access Subaccount System for Blockchain Wallets

Jay Yu, Shunfan Zhou, Hang Yin, Brian Seong

cs.CR Apr 24, 2026 · v1
Formalizes the PASS wallet protocol in Lean 4 and proves core privacy/provenance invariants.
Blockchain wallets conventionally follow an ownership model where possession of a private key grants unilateral control. However, this assumption is brittle for emerging settings such as AI agent wallets, organizational custody, and enterprise payroll, where multiple actors must coordinate without exposing secrets or leaking internal activity. We present PASS, a Provenanced Access Subaccount System that replaces role-based or identity-based control with provenance-based control: assets can only be used by subaccounts that can trace custody back to a valid deposit. A simple Inbox-Outbox mechanism ensures all external actions have verifiable lineage, while internal transfers remain private and indistinguishable from ordinary EOAs. We formalize PASS in Lean 4 and prove core invariants, including privacy of internal transfers, asset accessibility, and provenance integrity. We implement a prototype with enclave backends on AWS Nitro Enclaves and dstack Intel TDX, integrate with WalletConnect, and benchmark throughput across wallet operations. These results show that provenance-based wallets are both implementable and efficient. PASS bridges today's gap between strict self-custody and flexible shared access, advancing the design space for practical, privacy-preserving custody.

Blockchain wallets use an ownership model where a single private key grants unilateral control, which is inadequate for settings like AI agent wallets, organizational custody, and enterprise payroll where multiple actors must coordinate without exposing secrets or leaking internal activity.

The authors present PASS, a Provenanced Access Subaccount System that replaces role-based or identity-based control with provenance-based control: assets can only be used by subaccounts that trace custody back to a valid deposit. An Inbox-Outbox mechanism ensures external actions have verifiable lineage while internal transfers remain private. They formalize PASS in Lean 4 and prove core invariants including privacy of internal transfers, asset accessibility, and provenance integrity. A prototype is implemented with enclave backends on AWS Nitro Enclaves and dstack Intel TDX.

The Lean 4 formalization verifies the core security invariants. The prototype integrates with WalletConnect and demonstrates that provenance-based wallets are both implementable and efficient across benchmarked wallet operations.