PRI12
Data-native
Commitments and proofs are self-contained artifacts that travel with the data they describe: possessing the artifact is sufficient for any authorised party to verify — offline, with no service call and no account — because the evidence lives in the data itself, not in an external system.
Rationale
When the evidence lives inside the data rather than in an external service, a proof can be relied on anywhere the data goes — offline, with no service call and no account to maintain — which removes ongoing runtime dependencies and availability risk from everyone who needs to verify. The proof is created with the holder’s cryptographic material and bound to a commitment (Principles 3 and 6); once made, it stands on its own. This principle settles where the evidence lives, while Principle 4 settles who may verify it — together they make verification both independent and portable.
Implications
- Verification works with no network at all, so parties in the field, across a supply chain or behind an air gap can check evidence without connectivity — extending where your data can be trusted well beyond the systems you keep online.
- Verification never depends on the issuer or any service being online: offline verifiability is your availability guarantee, which takes an entire class of uptime and continuity risk out of your compliance and settlement processes.
- You integrate a single core library — one dependency to manage and one audited surface to assure — and because each artifact carries or names its own parameters, the evidence is self-describing and independently inspectable.