Dominic Williams alleges NEAR copied DFINITY’s threshold ECDSA work, published in a 2022 paper, without permission. He says it was licensed only for Internet Computer, questions how NEAR initially distributed key shares and who can upgrade the nodes, and calls NEAR’s ECDSA redesign an emergency move to a slower algorithm. The public material here does not establish copying or show a legal filing. Williams’s post

Dominic Williams alleges NEAR copied DFINITY’s threshold ECDSA work, published in a 2022 paper, without permission. He says it was licensed only for Internet Computer, questions how NEAR initially distributed key shares and who can upgrade the nodes, and calls NEAR’s ECDSA redesign an emergency move to a slower algorithm. The public material here does not establish copying or show a legal filing. Williams’s post

The evidence complicates that account: NEAR’s open near/mpc repository uses Cait-Sith, and its ECDSA v2 work removes presigning and presignature rerandomization. The repository says the change aims to combine presign and sign in a four-round protocol; its issue describes security checks using Pedersen commitments and an identifiable check. That supports a concrete redesign, but the available records do not say it was prompted by DFINITY or establish that NEAR’s prior implementation copied DFINITY’s protected mechanisms. NEAR’s design issue · ECDSA v2 issue

Two granted US patents assigned to DFINITY concern specific mechanisms: deriving subkeys from a pair of master keys and rerandomizing a presignature after a signing request. They are relevant evidence, but their existence alone does not show NEAR used the claimed methods; the supplied technical analysis says NEAR derives from one key, while the overlap question remains for code and legal review. Key-derivation patent · Presignature patent

On decentralization, NEAR says its network has 17 independent mainnet operators, an 11-of-17 threshold, and runs operations inside TEEs with onchain-verifiable attestation. Williams acknowledged a dashboard showing 16 nodes and named operators, but questioned whether they are 16 distinct parties, how shares were initially dealt, and whether upgrades could expose shares. A NEAR technical document also identifies TEE limits, including host control over interruptions and scheduling, out-of-scope hardware and side-channel attacks, and a rollback risk involving stored presignatures. These records describe safeguards and residual risks; they do not independently prove how the live network is operated. NEAR’s statement · Williams’s response · TEE design

The public evidence does not resolve whether NEAR used DFINITY technology without permission, nor establish a court case or independent audit resolving the allegations.