Hyperledger Cacti’s SATP Hermes is a documented software implementation of the IETF Secure Asset Transfer Protocol (SATP) gateway model—not proof that SATP is a finished standard or that Hermes conforms to the latest draft. The IETF describes gateways coordinating transfers between networks; Cacti documents Hermes components, a four-stage workflow, ledger integrations, and specific crash-recovery assumptions. Those distinctions matter when assessing interoperability, safety, and operational readiness.
What SATP is designed to standardize
SATP is an IETF effort to define how gateways can coordinate digital-asset transfers between networks. It is intended to address a particular interoperability problem: on private or permissioned networks, an outside party may not be able to inspect the asset’s state directly. Instead, peer gateways represent the origin and destination networks and exchange transfer messages and evidence.
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The model assumes both networks share a common understanding of the asset. SATP does not, by itself, make unlike ledgers agree on what an asset means, who owns it, or what rights it conveys. The protocol aims for a transfer in which the asset is valid on only one network at a time, with commit or abort behavior and support for rollback if a transfer fails mid-process.
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The gateways coordinate directly while each network retains its own ledger technology and rules. In the architecture model, a successful transfer extinguishes (burns) the asset on the origin network and regenerates (mints) it on the destination network. The gateway boundary is meant to hide network-specific internal constructs from its counterpart, allowing each network to evolve locally.
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The architecture describes desired properties including atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability, liveliness and safety, and verifiable evidence. These are goals for the protocol and its implementations, not automatic guarantees delivered by a gateway label. The actual burn, mint, locking, and proof mechanisms depend on the ledger and the implementation.
What Cacti documents about SATP Hermes
Hyperledger Cacti describes itself as a pluggable interoperability framework for heterogeneous distributed ledgers and blockchains. Its modules, libraries, SDKs, and templates are intended to support use cases such as cross-network asset transfers, swaps, and ledger-state sharing, including work with private or permissioned networks.
The official cactus-plugin-satp-hermes README presents Hermes as a software implementation of the IETF SATP protocol. Its documented responsibilities include gateway and session management, cryptographic operations, audit logging, crash recovery, and ledger integration. The README identifies Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum/Besu integrations and describes an architecture that can be extended to other ledgers.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchThe project documentation separates application-to-gateway access from gateway-to-gateway communication. Its architecture documentation describes a gateway orchestrator, SATP manager, cross-chain components, persistence, and protocol stages. These are descriptions of the project’s software, not independent conformance results. The available documentation does not establish that Hermes has been independently tested against the latest SATP draft.
How to read the standards and implementation boundary
| Layer | What it describes | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| IETF SATP drafts | A gateway-to-gateway protocol model, desired transfer behavior, message flows, terminology, and evidence goals. | A completed RFC, a particular gateway implementation, or ledger-specific burn, mint, and proof mechanisms. |
| Cacti SATP Hermes documentation | A software architecture, API roles, described stages, ledger integrations, and stated recovery assumptions. | Independent conformance to the newest draft or a guarantee that every ledger adapter provides equivalent transfer safety. |
| Participating networks and organizations | Local ledger rules, asset meaning, operational controls, and agreements between participants. | Those governance and legal arrangements are not supplied by SATP message exchange alone. |
What the documented Hermes workflow does
The Hermes README labels four stages. Its architecture documentation uses closely related labels, so implementations should be checked against the precise message names and ordering in the core draft and software version actually deployed.
- Stage 0 — initialization: establish a session between gateways and negotiate capabilities.
- Stage 1 — transfer agreement: exchange asset details and reach agreement on the transfer.
- Stage 2 — lock evidence: lock the asset as required by the source-side process, generate evidence, and exchange or verify proof.
- Stage 3 — commitment: complete the transfer, including the destination-side action and the corresponding source-side outcome.
The README also describes source and destination ledger actions, proof exchange, rollback in failure cases, and audit trails. The exact ledger operation and evidence mechanism are implementation-dependent; do not assume that a stage name alone proves atomicity or successful recovery.
Which crash-recovery assumptions Hermes states
The Hermes README qualifies its recovery procedure with explicit assumptions. In the documented model, gateways:
- crash only after receiving a message and before sending the next one;
- log the previously received message;
- retain their long-term keys;
- do not behave in a Byzantine manner; and
- eventually recover.
The README says the project intends to reduce these assumptions. Until that is reflected in the version and deployment being evaluated, treat them as boundaries of the described recovery model—not as guarantees of SATP generally, and not as protection against arbitrary faults or malicious gateways.
What the drafts say about security and governance
The IETF working-group overview says SATP will define common identifiers, message flows, payloads, and terminology. It identifies existing standards that may be reused, including TLS for secure channels; JSON or CBOR payloads; JOSE or COSE for signatures and encryption; PKIX certificates and JWT tokens; and possible use of W3C DIDs. These are examples in the overview, not a complete or mandatory implementation profile.
Protocol messages and cryptographic evidence do not settle institutional questions. The working-group overview says participating networks will likely need legal or other agreements, while those frameworks and proof of proper implementation are outside SATP’s scope. Asset valuation, legal enforceability, liability, participant authorization, and each ledger’s local rules therefore need separate treatment.
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SATP architecture and core were still Internet-Drafts in the IETF materials listed in the available status information; they should not be described as finalized RFCs. The architecture revision identified there is draft-ietf-satp-architecture-10, dated 15 September 2026. The IETF document index listed draft-ietf-satp-core-17, dated 25 September 2026, with a Last Call ending 9 October 2026. Because that date has passed, those listings do not establish the current Last Call state as of 11 October 2026. Check the IETF Datatracker and document index for the live revision and status before relying on them.
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How to evaluate a Cacti SATP integration
Assess the integration against the deployment’s requirements rather than assuming that protocol support alone establishes readiness. These checks help expose the most consequential gaps:
- Draft alignment: record which SATP core and architecture revisions the software targets, and how draft changes are tracked.
- Ledger capabilities: confirm the adapters for the actual networks, the asset operations they support, and how those operations map to local ledger rules.
- Transfer safety and evidence: determine how locking, proof generation and verification, commit or abort, rollback, and audit evidence implement the intended transfer properties.
- Recovery: examine durable message logging, key retention, supported crash points, and what happens when a gateway is faulty or malicious.
- Operations and governance: decide who operates each gateway, who bears liability, which local controls apply, and what agreements govern participants and assets.
Keep the exact Hermes version and draft revision together in design records and test plans. A statement that an implementation supports SATP is not a substitute for checking its documented behavior against the protocol revision and the ledger-specific transfer rules used in production.
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