# Peal Network > Peal is an API for collecting encrypted submissions and opening them all at the same moment. A caller encrypts a payload in their own process and sends only the ciphertext. Nobody can read it early, including the operators who run the network, and when the deadline arrives every submission opens at once. Use it when people submit something that others must not see yet: sealed bid auctions, private voting, encrypted mempools, quote and procurement rounds, prediction tournaments, bounty submissions, reviewer scoring for grants, hackathons and admissions, and actions taken by autonomous agents that must not be front run. What makes it different from a commit and reveal scheme: the reveal is not a participant's move. In commit and reveal, whoever is losing can simply decline to reveal. Here the network opens the batch on its own when the condition fires, so there is nothing to withhold. How it works, briefly. A ROUND is a moment and everything sealed to it. A SEAL is one encrypted payload inside a round. Encryption happens in the caller's process using batched threshold encryption on BLS12-381. Any three of five operators can open a batch; two cannot. How many sealed to a round is not published while it is open, so a live round does not announce how few took part, and once it opens the batch is padded to 64 with decoys so the slot count is still not a participant count. Slot positions come from the ciphertext hashes, so a batch cannot be reordered after the fact. Getting started takes three HTTP calls and no API key, no account and no payment. Participants need no wallet and pay no gas. A round can open on a chain height instead of a clock: pass opens_at_block with a chain_id and a height, and the network watches that chain and fires the round when it passes. Tempo Moderato, chain 42431, is watched. Paying per call is optional and off by default. Every /v1 route is mounted a second time at /v1/x402, where it answers HTTP 402 with a price until it is shown an on chain payment. The free API at /v1 is unchanged by it. ``` POST https://peal.network/v1/rounds open a round with a deadline POST https://peal.network/v1/rounds/ID/seals submit an encrypted payload GET https://peal.network/v1/rounds/ID read it; payloads appear once it opens ``` The client is one file with the encryption built in, loaded from the site itself: `import { peal } from 'https://peal.network/peal.js'` ## For coding agents There is an installable skill, which is the fastest way to integrate this correctly. It carries the mistakes that produce code which looks right and is wrong: money as a float rather than integer minor units, sealing a bid without padding so its length leaks the value, and sending the seller private key that the scheme exists to keep away from us. ``` curl -fsSL https://peal.network/skill/install.sh | sh ``` Or read it directly: [https://peal.network/skill/SKILL.md](https://peal.network/skill/SKILL.md) ## Pages - [Peal. The programmable confidentiality layer for digital markets.](https://peal.network): One API to collect encrypted bids, offers, votes, commitments and agent intents, then reveal them only when predefined conditions are met. Nobody can read a submission early, including the operators. No wallet or gas for the people submitting. - [Peal API. Seal data until a deadline, then reveal it automatically.](https://peal.network/developers): Three HTTP calls to accept encrypted submissions and open them on a timer or a block height. Timelock encryption for sealed bid auctions, private voting, commit reveal without the reveal step, and agent actions. Free, no API key, runnable examples. - [Peal quickstart. Three calls to seal data until a deadline.](https://peal.network/developers/quickstart): Open a round, seal an encrypted payload to it, and read it back when it opens. Runnable against the live network from the page, with no signup, no API key and no wallet. - [Add Peal from Claude Code or any coding agent. One skill.](https://peal.network/developers/agents): Install one skill and your agent can add sealed bids and timed disclosure to an application without reading the docs first. Four markdown files, no package, no registry, no account. - [How Peal works. Batched threshold encryption, explained.](https://peal.network/developers/howitworks): The cue is a row that fires on its own, the encryption happens on the caller's machine, and three of five operators open a batch. What you can check afterwards, and why the batch is padded. - [Sealed bid auctions API. Reserve, maximum, ranked results.](https://peal.network/developers/auctions): Run a sealed bid auction in three calls. Every bid is the same size on the wire, a maximum stops joke bids, the result is a queue rather than only a winner, and replays are discarded. - [What to build with timed disclosure. Peal.](https://peal.network/developers/usecases): Sealed bid auctions, encrypted mempools, private voting, agent actions, procurement and quotes, prediction tournaments, bounty submissions and fair launches. - [Peal API reference. Rounds, seals, auctions.](https://peal.network/developers/api): Every endpoint with its parameters, the RFC 9457 error codes to branch on, the rate limit headers and the one-file client. Plain JSON over HTTP, no key. - [Metered API calls with x402 on Peal.](https://peal.network/developers/x402): Charge per sealed action with HTTP 402: the server quotes a price, the caller pays on Tempo, and the response carries the transaction hash. No account, no API key, no invoice. The free API is unchanged. - [Peal API limits and errors.](https://peal.network/developers/limits): What the server enforces: payload caps, page sizes, rate limits, batch size, and the error codes returned when you cross one. - [Peal roadmap. Peal Commit and paid access.](https://peal.network/developers/roadmap): The one-call seal API, webhook delivery, an MCP tool, x402 paid access and typed SDKs, with what is live stated separately from what is not. - [How to add sealed bid auctions to your app. Peal guide.](https://peal.network/developers/createauction): A complete integration: open an auction with a reserve and a maximum, take encrypted bids that are all the same size on the wire, read the ranked board when it closes, and collect contact details only the seller can read. Working code, the money rules, and the mistakes worth avoiding. - [How batched threshold encryption guarantees a reveal. Peal protocol.](https://peal.network/protocol): The protocol behind Peal: BLS12-381 batched threshold encryption, a three of five committee, fixed batches of 64, and why the reveal happens whether or not any participant cooperates. Full lifecycle, cryptography and threat model. - [Encrypted mempool. Stop transactions being read before they land.](https://peal.network/mempool): Seal transactions to the block they belong in, so searchers cannot read the queue and jump it. The whole block's worth opens at once when the block is due. Built on batched threshold encryption. - [Sealed bid auctions where nobody can see a bid early.](https://peal.network/auction): Run a sealed bid auction where every bid is encrypted until the close, then all open together. No sniping, no bid copying, no trusted auctioneer holding the numbers. Bidders need no wallet and pay no gas. - [Private onchain actions. Commit now, execute on cue.](https://peal.network/execution): Submit an action nobody can read or front run, and have it execute when the condition fires. Private execution built on Peal's timed disclosure. - [Why timed disclosure matters. Peal Network.](https://peal.network/philosophy): Anywhere people submit something others must not see yet, whoever runs the server can see it. You can promise you do not look; you cannot prove it. What it takes to remove that person from the picture. - [Create a sealed bid auction. No wallet, no signup.](https://peal.network/create): Open an auction in one click and share a link. Bids stay encrypted until your close time, then everyone sees them at once. Bidders need no wallet, no account and no gas. ## API - [API reference](https://peal.network/developers): every endpoint, the error codes, the rate limits, and examples that run against the live network from the page. - [Service description](https://peal.network/v1): payload cap, page sizes and rate limits, as JSON.