VaultZero

home page
vault view
password-creation-view
password-generator
settings
setting-light-theme
export-cipher-password
ledgers
light theme home page
mobile view

Inspiration

Most password managers solve a real problem, but they still rely on centralized infrastructure to store an encrypted vault. I wanted to explore a different question:

What if you didn't have to trust a company with your digital identity?

The MLH Midnight Hackathon gave me the opportunity to experiment with a privacy-first approach where users own their encrypted vault instead of depending on a central service.

What it does

VaultZero is a decentralized password manager that helps users securely store and manage their passwords.

Features:

🔐 Client-side password encryption
👛 Wallet-based authentication
📦 Only encrypted ciphertext is stored
👤 Passwords are decrypted only by the owner

The goal is simple: your passwords stay yours.

How I built it

The application is divided into three simple layers:

User
   ↓
Wallet Authentication
   ↓
Client-side Encryption
   ↓
Storage Layer

I built the encryption logic on the client so passwords are protected before they're stored. The storage layer is abstracted, making it easy to integrate with Midnight as the project evolves without changing the overall architecture.

Challenges I ran into

Like most hackathon projects, time was the biggest challenge.

Some of the things I had to figure out:

Take help of AI to Design a clean encryption flow
Keeping the architecture modular for future Midnight integration
Balancing security with a smooth user experience
Staying focused on a realistic MVP instead of trying to build every feature
Overall Figuring out how I can ship the product keeping things as clean and polished as possible.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I'm proud that I built a working end-to-end prototype instead of just a concept.

Some highlights:

✅ Local encryption before storage
✅ Wallet-based authentication
✅ Modular architecture
✅ A complete encrypted vault workflow
✅ Live working project

Most importantly, I stayed honest about what the MVP does today and what is planned for the future.

What I learned

This project reminded me that building secure software is mostly about good design decisions, not just writing code.

I also learned that privacy should be part of the architecture from day one rather than added later, and that designing for future integrations makes an MVP much easier to extend.