User Guide
Security & Trust
TaxTrace is designed so that you never have to take our word for it. This page explains, in plain terms, exactly what the public product can and cannot do.
The short version
- TaxTrace is read-only. It never holds your funds and cannot move them.
- It never executes or proposes trades and never asks anyone to sign a swap.
- Reports are Merkle-anchored on-chain via the Reporter so integrity can be verified independently.
Key principles
- Never holds funds. There is no deposit path on the public product. Your tokens stay in whatever wallet or venue already holds them.
- Never executes trades. TaxTrace does not propose swaps, route orders, or ask you to sign a transaction.
- Read-only indexing. The engine ingests public on-chain data and venue feeds. No keys, no seed phrases, no spending approvals.
- Merkle-anchored reports. Finalized report hashes are written on-chain by the Reporter with a timestamp.
- No protocol token. There is nothing to buy, stake, or approve beyond ordinary access to the reporting product.
What TaxTrace cannot do
- It cannot withdraw, transfer, or custody your funds.
- It cannot execute, propose, or require you to sign any swap or trade.
- It cannot charge you an on-chain fee — TaxTrace has no protocol token and takes no on-chain cut.
- It never needs your seed phrase or private key.
The protections built in
| Protection | What it prevents |
|---|---|
| Read-only design | Any path that would hold or move customer funds on the public product. |
| No trade execution | Unexpected swaps, trade proposals, or signature requests. |
| No keys required | Seed-phrase or private-key phishing surface for reporting. |
| No protocol token | Surprise on-chain charges tied to a utility token. |
| Merkle anchors (Reporter) | Silent alteration of a finalized report after export. |
| Basis-confidence labels | Treating uncertain cost basis as if it were oracle-attested. |
Verifiability
Because report hashes are anchored on-chain by the Reporter, your records are independently verifiable — see Verifying Your Reports.
Responsible disclosure
Found a security issue? Please report it responsibly via the contact in our security.txt rather than opening a public issue.