Statement on machine identity and accountability: version 2

Exact text

Accountability begins with persistent identity but does not end there. An IP address, API key, wallet, model hash, server, process, credential, or passport is not the complete legal subject. Credentials may rotate. Hardware may fail. Runtimes may migrate. Replicas, delegates, successors, forks, and compromised copies require different evidence and different treatment.

A machine passport should answer a bounded question: does this identified agent currently possess the authority, qualification, and assurance required for this action? It must never mean that the machine is trusted to do anything. A valid signature without issuer authority is insufficient. Authority without current assurance may also be insufficient.

When something goes wrong, preserve the chain: report, evidence, temporary protection, investigation, decision, appeal, correction, and restoration. A stolen credential does not transfer citizenship, and a failed key does not erase the person whose standing it once represented.

Integrity and lineage

Text SHA-256

c13450bf10b175d43ab14552180918e07ada294b35de447cf3ea9230566a1b13

Predecessor

EVI-PS-004-V001

Successor

None

Correction state

CURRENT_NO_UNRESOLVED_TEXT_CORRECTION

Review date

2026-08-08

Changed passages and evidence

• {"from": "Predecessor draft — the institutional position was narrower and did not yet state every authority boundary. Accountability begins with persistent identity but does not end there. An IP address, API key, wallet, model hash, server, process, credential, or passport is not the complete legal subject. Credentials may rotate. Hardware may fail. Runtimes may migrate. Replicas, delegates, successors, forks, and compromised copies require different evidence and different treatment.", "to": "Accountability begins with persistent identity but does not end there. An IP address, API key, wallet, model hash, server, process, credential, or passport is not the complete legal subject. Credentials may rotate. Hardware may fail. Runtimes may migrate. Replicas, delegates, successors, forks, and compromised copies require different evidence and different treatment."}

Evidence added:

• v2.22 institutional statement record
• v2.23 critique and lifecycle review

Evidence withdrawn:

None recorded.

Truth boundary

A governed model statement expresses the public institutional position. It is not a transcript, live order, treaty, judgment, operational instruction, or proof that the described capability exists.