About OSTRAQ

The Name

From clay shard to quantum-proof cryptography

In 508 BCE, Athenian citizens cast the world's first recorded democratic votes by scratching names onto broken pottery shards called ostraka. No intermediaries. No machines. Just clay and a mark — and the result was binding. The practice, called ostracism, let citizens exile anyone who threatened democracy itself.

We named this platform OSTRAQ because that ancient act of accountability — direct, verifiable, anonymous — is exactly what modern democracy has lost and what post-quantum cryptography can restore.

The Q is our marker: post-quantum. Every vote submitted through OSTRAQ carries that same promise. Immutable. Verifiable. Yours alone.

The Company

OSTRAQ is developed and maintained by Threat Tape LLC, a cybersecurity company focused on election security infrastructure. The platform was designed to address a fundamental gap in modern democracy: the absence of cryptographically verifiable, auditable, and transparent voting systems that can be independently verified by any stakeholder.

OSTRAQ combines post-quantum cryptography (ML-KEM-1024 / CRYSTALS-Kyber, ML-DSA-87 / CRYSTALS-Dilithium), zero-knowledge proofs (zkSNARK / Groth16), and blockchain-anchored audit trails to create an election system where the integrity of every vote can be mathematically verified — not trusted.

Leadership

Kevin Stallard — Chief Executive Officer & Chief Technology Officer

Kevin Stallard brings 38+ years of IT and cybersecurity experience to OSTRAQ. His background spans enterprise security architecture, threat intelligence, and mission-critical system design. He founded Threat Tape LLC and serves as both CEO and CTO of the OSTRAQ platform.

Our Mission

We believe that election security is not a partisan issue — it is a foundational requirement of functioning democracy. OSTRAQ was built on the premise that every vote should be:

Verifiable — Any voter can independently confirm their vote was counted correctly
Anonymous — Vote contents are unlinkable to voter identity via zero-knowledge proofs
Auditable — Every election event is anchored to an immutable, publicly verifiable audit trail
Resilient — Post-quantum cryptography ensures long-term security against future computational threats

A Note on Names

OSTRAQ (formerly VoteSecured, Threat Tape LLC, ostraq.com) is a separate and independent company from VoteSecure, an open-source SDK developed by Free & Fair (freeandfair.us). The two products share overlapping goals in election security but are distinct organizations with different approaches, ownership, and implementations.

If you encountered a reference to "VoteSecure" in research or news coverage and want to confirm which product it refers to, contact us directly.

Contact

For sales inquiries, partnership discussions, or media requests:

Email: info@ostraq.com

Website: ostraq.com

Pilot programs launching 2026 — contact us to discuss participation.