Database Encryption

Open the plugin's database and you will see prices, sellers and item names sitting right there in plain columns. Change one, and nothing happens. Those columns are decoys.

The real data is hidden, and checked

The values ProtonAuctions actually trusts are encrypted in a separate secure field. The readable columns exist only so the database can sort and search quickly. Every single time the plugin reads an auction, it decrypts the real values and holds them up against the plain ones. If they disagree, that auction is quietly set aside rather than trusted.

So editing the database by hand, to hand yourself a cheaper price or a different owner, simply does not take. The change is caught the instant the row is read.

Locked to your installation, not your licence

The key behind all of this is created on your server the first time it runs, saved as proton.lock, and it belongs to your installation, not to your licence. That is deliberate, and it is on your side: even a lapsed or removed licence never makes your data unreadable. The one thing that would is losing proton.lock itself, so back it up alongside your database. More on that in The Installation Key.