Read this first
Certification bodies issue PDFs; scanner vendors issue dashboards. Neither is checkable by the customer, and both are stale the day after. Our attestation is an organization-held credential whose requirements bind the automated checks (readiness scan, conformance, live probe) to specific repositories and domains with numeric thresholds. A scheduled evaluator re-verifies it against live evidence, re-dispatches checks when the evidence goes stale, and drives a public status that degrades to re-verifying and then lapsed if posture drifts, and recovers automatically. The issuance proof stays; the reality behind it is re-checked.
Vendors need a credible way to say "our post-quantum posture is X and it is still true today," and their customers need a way to check it without commissioning their own audit. A signed report cannot do that: it proves a state at a moment, and the moment passes. So we built the credential to keep proving itself.
What it attests, and what it is bound to
An attestation is an organization-held credential marked as a program. It carries a set of requirements, and each requirement binds one automated check to one repository (or one probed domain) plus the bounds that define the bar: a minimum readiness score, a maximum number of new vulnerable findings tolerated, and a freshness window after which evidence is considered stale. The credential's canonical hash and its OpenTimestamps proof are untouched by all of this, so the tamper-evidence of issuance still holds; the program is layered on through metadata and two side tables.
Continuous re-verification
A scheduled evaluator walks every active attestation. For each requirement it reads the latest posture snapshot for that repository and check (score, new-finding count, evidence age), then decides an outcome. When evidence is stale or missing, it re-dispatches the backing check so fresh evidence exists next cycle. Every evaluation appends one row to an audit trail; nothing is overwritten. The per-requirement outcomes fold into one status:
- Verified: evidence is fresh and within every threshold.
- Re-verifying (stale): evidence aged past its freshness window, or a check was re-dispatched; the public badge keeps its verified color through a seven-day grace window.
- Lapsed: the grace window elapsed and posture is still out of bounds; the public badge is downgraded.
- Recovery is automatic: a single passing evaluation clears the streak and the grace clock.
A threshold breach (score below the floor, or too many new findings) reads as failed regardless of freshness, because failing evidence is a real signal, not a staleness artifact. The holder is emailed on the transition out of verified, not on every cycle, so the alert means something.
Public, and checkable by anyone
The point of an attestation is that a third party can verify it without trusting you. The public credential page shows a continuous re-verification strip: the live status, the last verified date, and each requirement with its bounds and latest result, alongside the Bitcoin-timestamped issuance proof and the domain backlink check. The embeddable badge is live: its color and status chip (Verified, Re-verifying, Lapsed) reflect the current state and refresh hourly, so a badge on a vendor's site cannot claim a posture the vendor no longer holds.
A certificate says something was true once. A re-verified attestation says it is still true, and lets you check for yourself.
This is what turns a one-shot audit into a standing relationship: the annual re-issuance carries the expert judgment, and the machine carries the continuous proof in between. It is also the piece that gives an early mover a reason to act before a mandate forces them, because a public, checkable posture is worth something the day you can show it. See the readiness standard for the model the thresholds map onto.
References
- OpenTimestamps - the Bitcoin-anchored proof that fixes the issuance moment.
- The readiness standard - the maturity model the attestation requirements are graded against.
- Harvest now, decrypt later - why continuous posture, not a point-in-time stamp, is the honest claim.