About the evidence
Understand the record.
Understand its limits.
A certificate connects a publisher-submitted source and its recorded revisions to the results of specific evidence checks. The repository is operated by the WP ContentLedger project, separate from the source website.
What is checked.
- Submission and manifest
- Which enrolled key submitted these bytes?
The repository authenticates submissions against a manually enrolled key, checks the source origin, and compares the exact manifest bytes with the submitted SHA-256 digest.
- Native evidence
- Does the submitted evidence match the record?
The current portable verifier checks a record-scoped native Bundle v3. The native record, manifest bytes, and source attribution must match before acceptance. Each certificate reports its native signature result; signing authorization remains a separate limitation.
- Source details
- What does the publisher report?
The source URL, title, author, publisher, and source publication and modification dates are publisher-submitted claims. They are displayed separately from the repository issuer and repository acceptance time.
- Repository receipt
- When did the repository accept the evidence?
A signed receipt records acceptance of a specific submission. Repository acceptance uses the repository clock; it is not an independently verified publication date or a confirmed Bitcoin attestation.
- Revision history
- How are accepted records connected?
Each publication has one stable certificate address. Accepted revisions link to preceding events and retain their own record addresses. This history does not necessarily include every edit to the source website.
What remains separate.
The repository does not independently verify author identity, legal ownership, originality, factual accuracy, current source-page content, or first publication. Enrolling a submission key is not independent identity vetting. The source page is not fetched and compared with the recorded content fingerprint.
Archive references and timestamp structures retain their own scope. Independent Bitcoin attestations are not verified by this repository. The certificate separates those limits from signature and digest checks.
Separate hosting does not itself establish independent governance.
Public access and withdrawal.
Eligible current certificates can appear in search results and the sitemap. Historical version pages, lookup results, evidence downloads, and withdrawn records request no search indexing.
Withdrawal suppresses source details and evidence downloads. Republishing starts a new public history without restoring previously withdrawn revisions. Minimal signed digest receipts remain available to reconcile delivery; withdrawal does not erase retained records or copies already downloaded.
The repository retains compact manifests and native proof bundles. Certificate HTML is generated on request, with no stored PDFs or full article bodies. Publishing currently uses manual site enrollment.
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