What is the Keep network?

By creating a bridge between the public blockchain and private data, contracts can harness the full power of blockchain technology, without compromising on reliability or transparency. Keep is that privacy layer. We use keeps, or private enclaves, to securely encrypt and store private data. Off-chain keeps will be protected using secure multiparty computation (sMPC), generating, securing, storing, encrypting and transmitting data across many individuals.
Keep provides the first production-ready sMPC system for distribution on the public Ethereum blockchain.
With this system, each individual is given access to a small portion of a secret which is encrypted. To gain or share access to that secret, the outputs are reported back from all the individuals and decrypted to reveal the secret. Keep is Ethereum’s first private computer, able to store and compute data hidden even from itself. This unique approach allows for the safe transfer of information from one party to another on the public blockchain without each individual needing to be online, providing a superior solution to current hash-reveal solutions, private blockchains, and zero-knowledge proofs alone.

What is the Keep Random Beacon?

One of the main components we are building now is the Random Beacon, which ensures the fair way to select providers for a new keep. Unfortunately, Ethereum only supports deterministic functions. Contracts that require a random number often rely on a trusted oracle. A system is only as decentralized as its most centralized component. Relying on a trusted third party for such a core function of the project isn’t an acceptable risk. Instead, we can utilize our keep providers as a decentralized source of entropy. All staked providers can be required to take part in the random number generation process.

What is the utility of the token?

We've been calling it the taxi medallion or "work token" model- it has some similarities to PoS but doesn't power an entire chain. Instead, staking is used to distribute work and as a Sybil-resistance measure. You will need KEEP tokens to stake and to be selected as a provider. Keep providers are similar to a master node provider as each will be staking their KEEP to be selected to compute a function over a secret and publish the secret to the blockchain. The provider that gets randomly selected would get paid in Ether. Providers are chosen via a random number driven by the threshold relay (see section 6.2.3 of our Whitepaper), Stakers (signing group) earn ETH from Random Beacon too. To be chosen to provide a node for a new keep, a provider must lock up a minimum stake in KEEP tokens, using a shared staking contract. We do not have a lockup time.