What a record proves
A record on chain proves three things. The reader of the evidence weighs the rest.
The three things it proves
- Content
- Produce the original file; if its fingerprint, computed again, matches the entry, this is that file, byte for byte.
- Time
- The content existed by the moment of anchoring at the latest.
- Signature
- The entry was signed by this key, at this position in this ledger.
Left to the reader
- Who the author is
- The ledger records that this key held this content at that time. Whether the holder is the author shows in the surrounding records: a ledger that records drafts, revisions and the finished work, entry after entry, convinces more than one holding the finished work alone.
- Whether two works are alike
- The ledger compares bytes. Likeness, and who drew on whom, is for the arbiter.
- What a grant means
- Exclusivity, scope, price and breach are written in the terms file; the ledger guarantees that the terms file is the very one attached at signing.
- Who stands behind a key
- The link between an address and a person is shown by the parties themselves: an address written into a contract, a signature made face to face.
Records made beforehand
The same file weighs very differently depending on whether it went on chain before the dispute or was produced after it. A record made beforehand is made while the outcome still lies ahead, and recording things as they are is the only sensible course.
So record early and continuously: at the moment of delivery, and at every step of the exchange. A record added after a dispute begins carries a time after the dispute.
Using it in a dispute
- A party picks the entries that bear on the matter and exports a record kit.
- The kit goes to the arbiter, who verifies it with their own app: whether the kit is intact, whether the entries are on chain, and the time of each.
- Verification answers whether the records are genuine. What each shows, and which side they support together, is for the arbiter to weigh.
What goes to the arbiter is an ordinary record kit, the same as one handed to anyone.
The arbiter sets the weight
How closely spaced records have to be, which chains’ time to trust, what a one-sided record is worth next to one signed by both sides: every arbiter has their own rules and publishes them. The ledger stays neutral here: it supplies facts and readings, and leaves their meaning to the reader.
Where the constraint comes from
Records in Zikaron take effect through choice: buyers pay after the grant checks out, platforms list a work after the grant checks out, readers seek out authors with a record. Every such choice rewards those who record things as they are.