Terms of Service & Licensing Conditions
✎ "Pure deep-tech intellectual property holding entity. Zero consumer retail operations; arm's-length licensing to qualified operators."
Statutory standard terms of engagement, technical diligence portal access, proprietary cryptographic software licensing, dual intellectual property covenants, and consumer disclosures under the laws of the Republic of South Africa.
Statutory Information Disclosure (Section 43 ECTA 25 of 2002)
Mandatory legal particulars in compliance with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.
Clauses in these Terms of Service that limit VaultCore Solutions’ liability, allocate commercial risk to you, or require an indemnity have been drafted in plain, understandable language. In terms of Section 49 of the Consumer Protection Act, your attention is specifically drawn to:
- Section 02 (Statutory Demarcation): VaultCore does not provide consumer emergency dispatch services or operate consumer control rooms.
- Section 05 (Infrastructure & API Integrity): Strict prohibitions against reverse engineering, circuit tampering, or penetration testing without written mandate.
- Section 07 (Limitation of Liability & Risk Allocation): Absolute cap on monetary liability and exclusion of indirect or consequential damages.
- Section 08 (Force Majeure): Non-liability during Eskom power grid curtailments ("load-shedding"), subsea fiber severance, or national emergencies.
- Section 12 (Expedited AFSA Arbitration): Mandatory confidential arbitration in Pretoria/Johannesburg, waiving standard court jury or protracted open litigation.
01. Acceptance of Terms & Contract Formation
By accessing the VaultCore Solutions website (vaultcore.co.za), utilizing technical diligence portals, accessing cryptographic demonstration endpoints, requesting architectural whitepapers, or executing a Master Software Licensing Agreement ("MSLA") with VAULTCORE SOLUTIONS (PTY) LTD ("VaultCore", "VCS", "the Company", "we", "us", or "our"), you agree to be bound by these statutory Terms of Service and Institutional Licensing Conditions ("Terms").
Juristic Authority Warranty: If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of an incorporated entity, government department, or institutional licensee, you represent and warrant that you possess full statutory capacity and delegation of authority in terms of Section 66 of the Companies Act 71 of 2008 or the entity's constitutive documents to bind that legal person.
02. Pure IP Entity Demarcation & Non-Operation of Consumer Services
VaultCore Solutions (Pty) Ltd is an intellectual property holding and deep-tech software engineering vehicle. We design, harden, secure, and maintain core software applications, applied zero-knowledge proof circuits, on-device neural biometric engines, and the sovereign LifeLink emergency response platform for licensing to qualified commercial and institutional operators.
1. Strict Corporate Veil (Section 20(9) Companies Act): VaultCore maintains strict corporate separation between software engineering and operational deployment. VCS does not operate consumer retail services, consumer mobile subscriber billing, or physical emergency field dispatch networks.
2. Operating Licensees: All field network operations, emergency vehicle dispatch, armed response integrations, and public subscriber support sit exclusively with qualified operating licensees, such as Mind Haven Innovations (Pty) Ltd (mindhaven.co.za).
3. Parent Governance: VaultCore Solutions is a subsidiary of Horizon Strategic Group (Pty) Ltd (horizonstrategicgroup.co.za), which provides capital allocation, risk governance, and group fiduciary oversight.
03. Dual Intellectual Property Framework & Cryptographic Ownership
To prevent IP dilution, ambiguity, and regulatory friction, all software assets and intellectual property are governed by our immutable dual-ownership standard:
VaultCore Solutions (Pty) Ltd retains 100% exclusive global ownership of all cryptographic engines, zero-knowledge proof circuits (Groth16/Rust FFI), Poseidon algebraic hash implementations, neural biometric pipelines, spatial routing algorithms, and core LifeLink software architectures.
Licensees receive a non-exclusive, territorial, arm's-length commercial license solely as defined under executed Master Software Licensing Agreements.
Operating licensees retain absolute, uncompromised sovereignty and lawful ownership over their own end-user customer records, incident dispatch databases, responder telemetry, and local geographic configurations.
VaultCore claims zero ownership, right, or title to the operational databases compiled by operating licensees during field operations.
04. On-Device Biometric Invariant & Privacy Architecture
Under Section 18 of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA Act 4 of 2013), biometric information constitutes special personal information subject to heightened statutory safeguards.
The Architectural Invariant: In the LifeLink emergency platform, neural biometric inference across 6 modalities (facial geometry, fingerprint liveness, vocal timbre, retinal reflex, typing cadence, and gait inertia) executes strictly on edge devices within isolated cryptographic enclaves.
Zero Central Biometric Storage: Raw biometric vectors, unencrypted facial images, and fingerprint templates are never transmitted across telecommunications networks and are never stored on VaultCore servers. Verification occurs via zero-knowledge proofs and cryptographic state commitments.
05. Cloud Infrastructure, VPS Nodes & API Integrity
VaultCore maintains hardened production cloud endpoints, core backend VPS infrastructure (213.199.52.198), MinIO object storage (storage.vaultcore.co.za), and core dispatch APIs (api.vaultcore.co.za).
- Reverse engineering, decompiling, or disassembling compiled cryptographic binaries, WebAssembly modules, or zero-knowledge proof circuits.
- Conducting unauthorized stress testing, vulnerability scanning, or denial-of-service (DDoS) simulations without written authorization signed by the Director.
- Automated scraping of technical diligence documentation, research blueprints, or Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) metadata.
06. Commercial Licensing Model & LTS Covenants
Commercial operator licensing agreements are executed under bespoke bilateral Master Software Licensing Agreements (MSLA).
- Currency & Invoicing: All license fees are quoted in South African Rand (ZAR) or USD for foreign territories. Invoices are payable net 14 days from issue date.
- 24-Month Long-Term Support (LTS): Licensed production platforms receive guaranteed 24-month security maintenance, vulnerability patching, cryptographic dependency audits, and operating system compatibility updates.
- Default & Interest: Unpaid matured licensing invoices accrue interest at the maximum statutory rate prescribed under the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975.
07. Limitation of Liability & Risk Allocation (CPA §49)
To the maximum extent permissible under Section 51 of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 and South African common law:
1. Exclusion of Consequential Damages: In no event shall VaultCore Solutions (Pty) Ltd, its directors, officers, employees, or cryptographic researchers be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential damages, including loss of revenue, loss of business opportunity, emergency response delays caused by telecommunications degradation, or corruption of field responder databases.
2. Monetary Aggregate Cap: VaultCore’s total cumulative liability arising out of or related to these Terms, website access, or software licensing—whether founded in contract, delict (including negligence), or statute—shall be strictly limited to the total fees actually received by VaultCore from the claimant under the relevant licensing schedule during the 3 (three) months preceding the event giving rise to liability.
08. Force Majeure, Power Grid & Subsea Telecommunications Events
Neither party shall be held in breach of these Terms or liable for failure to deliver services where such failure arises from events beyond reasonable commercial control, including but not limited to:
• South African National / Municipal Power Grid Curailment ("Load-Shedding")
• Subsea telecommunications cable ruptures (WACS, SAT-3, Equiano, ACE)
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) state-actor cyberwarfare incidents
• National disaster declarations, civil commotion, or state of emergency proclamations
09. Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) & Release Signing
VaultCore guarantees supply-chain transparency and cryptographic auditability for all licensed software deliverables:
10. Confidentiality & Trade Secret Protection
Technical diligence disclosures, mathematical circuit specifications, source code repositories, and architectural whitepapers disclosed to prospective licensees constitute high-value confidential proprietary trade secrets of VaultCore Solutions (Pty) Ltd.
Recipients agree to preserve confidentiality using no less than a reasonable degree of care, to restrict access strictly to authorized software architects with a legitimate need-to-know, and not to exploit confidential disclosures to independently build competing zero-knowledge emergency frameworks.
11. Termination & License Revocation Protocol
Either party may terminate an institutional licensing agreement for material breach upon giving 14 (fourteen) calendar days' written notice detailing the breach, provided the breach remains un-remedied upon expiry of such period.
Upon termination for cause by VaultCore (including intellectual property theft, unauthorized reverse engineering, or non-payment), all software licenses immediately terminate, and the licensee must permanently decommission deployed server images and return or destroy all proprietary artifacts.
12. Governing Law & AFSA Expedited Commercial Arbitration
These Terms, their interpretation, and all disputes arising out of or in connection with them shall be governed exclusively by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.
Any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or software licensing agreements shall be submitted to confidential, final, and binding arbitration in accordance with the Expedited Commercial Rules of the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa ("AFSA").
The arbitration shall be conducted in Pretoria or Johannesburg before a single arbitrator appointed by AFSA. Nothing herein shall preclude either party from seeking urgent interdictory relief from the High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division) having competent jurisdiction.
13. Domicilium Citandi et Executandi (Statutory Notices)
VaultCore Solutions (Pty) Ltd selects as its domicilium citandi et executandi for all purposes under these Terms, whether in respect of court process, official notices, or other documents:
VAULTCORE SOLUTIONS (PTY) LTD
CIPC Registration: 2024 / 422592 / 07
Headquarters / Physical Address: 222 Pretorius Ave, Lyttelton Manor, Centurion, Gauteng, 0157, South Africa
Legal Process Email: [email protected]
General Diligence Email: [email protected]
Direct Telephone: +27 60 715 7470
14. General Statutory & Severability Invariants
- Whole Agreement: These Terms constitute the primary statutory governance regime between the parties regarding website and diligence portal access, unless superseded by an executed bilateral Master Software Licensing Agreement.
- Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable under the Consumer Protection Act or other applicable statute, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.
- No Waiver: No relaxation, indulgence, or extension of time granted by VaultCore shall be deemed a waiver of any statutory or contractual rights.