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Research

The Web4 Research Library

Research proves.

The canonical library of Web4 papers, frameworks, essays, and supporting concepts.

The Canon, ExplainedThe Four WebsBrowse Companion SeriesIncentive EngineeringVisual LibraryAll Web4 FiguresTake the W4BOK TestINC-012COMP-001CA-001

Visual Canon

315 figures. One visual library.

66 papers · 7 collections · every figure editable
Open library →

Follow-on Canon

Architecture Series

Focused architecture papers extend the core canon without colliding with the WEB4 numbering sequence.

Coordination Architecture

COOR-001

The Complexity of Coordination: Why Governable Intelligence Becomes Essential at Scale

Extends classical communication complexity into human and AI organizations, showing why Web4 architecture is required to keep contribution, delegation, trust, and coordination governable at scale.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
Coordination Architecture
Open coordination paper

Contribution Architecture

CA-001

Contribution Architecture: Modeling, Verifying, and Attributing Value Creation

Establishes Contribution Architecture as the evidence layer for Web4: modeling contribution provenance, attribution, graphs, verification, trust, reputation, and the dependency into Incentive Architecture.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
Contribution Architecture
Open companion paper

Compensation Architecture

COMP-001

Compensation Architecture: Distributing Economic Value to Maximize Long-Term Engagement

Establishes Compensation Architecture as the third pillar of the Organizational Value Stack: Contribution Architecture establishes value, Incentive Architecture shapes motivation, and Compensation Architecture distributes economic value to sustain engagement.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
Compensation Architecture
Open companion paper

Incentive Engineering

INC-001

What Is Incentive Engineering?

Introduces Incentive Engineering as a companion discipline to the Web4 Canon: governance determines what an actor may do, while incentives determine what an actor chooses to do.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper
INC-002

The Incentive Principle: Why Intelligent Systems Follow Incentives

Establishes the foundational law that behavior is shaped more reliably by perceived incentives than by intentions, policies, or instructions.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper
INC-003

Incentive Alignment: The Foundation of Safe Delegation

Establishes Incentive Alignment as the primary mechanism for reducing delegation risk across humans, organizations, AI agents, robots, and autonomous systems.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper
INC-004

Designing Incentive Systems: An Engineering Framework for Intelligent Organizations

Presents a repeatable engineering methodology for designing, implementing, measuring, reviewing, and adapting incentive systems across humans and intelligent agents.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper
INC-005

Adaptive Incentive Systems: Designing Incentives That Evolve with Intelligent Systems

Establishes adaptive incentive systems as the operational discipline for preserving alignment, trust, and effective delegation as intelligent actors learn and environments change.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper
INC-006

Incentive Auditing: Measuring Alignment Before Systems Fail

Establishes Incentive Auditing as the measurement and assurance discipline for detecting hidden incentives, alignment gaps, and delegation risks before systems fail.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper
INC-007

Reward Hacking and Incentive Failure: When Intelligent Systems Optimize the Wrong Objective

Establishes reward hacking as a universal failure mode across humans, organizations, AI agents, robots, and autonomous systems, and presents principles for resilient incentive architectures.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper
INC-008

Goodhart's Law and Incentive Engineering: Why Metrics Fail and How to Design Better Systems

Establishes Goodhart's Law as a foundational constraint for incentive systems and explains how resilient measurement architectures protect governance, delegation, verification, and trust.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper
INC-009

Principal-Agent Theory for the Age of AI: Aligning Autonomous Decision Makers

Modernizes Principal-Agent Theory for AI agents, robotics, autonomous systems, and multi-agent organizations, focusing on incentive divergence and agency risk.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper
INC-010

Reputation Systems: Engineering Trust Through Incentives

Establishes reputation as incentive infrastructure: verified behavioral history shapes future trust, delegation, access, authority, and accountability.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper
INC-011

Trust Engineering: Designing Systems That Earn and Sustain Trust

Establishes trust as an engineered system property produced by governance, verification, transparency, reputation, accountability, and aligned incentives over time.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper
INC-012

Incentive Architecture: Engineering Organizations for Continuous Alignment

Synthesizes Volume I into a practical architecture for aligning mission, governance, authority, delegation, incentives, behavior, trust, reputation, and adaptation.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
Incentive Engineering Series
Open companion paper

Governance Canon

WEB4-001

The Authority Graph

Defines authority as a network and introduces the Authority Graph as foundational infrastructure for delegated intelligence.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
authority - delegation - governance - authority-graph
Open paper page
WEB4-002

The Return of the Principal-Agent Problem

Explains why intelligent agents recreate classical agency risks and why governance infrastructure becomes necessary.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
principal - agent - authority - delegation
Open paper page
WEB4-003

The Agentic Firm

Explores organizations as authority networks composed of humans, agents, institutions, and systems.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
organization - institution - agent - workflow
Open paper page
WEB4-004

The Web4 Constitution

Defines constitutional principles for delegated intelligence and accountable authority.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
authority - delegation - governance - accountability - constraint - revocation
Open paper page
WEB4-005

Delegation Is the Primitive of Web4

Positions delegation as the core Web4 primitive for governable intelligent systems.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
delegation - delegated-authority - principal - agent - authority - governance
Open paper page
WEB4-010

Agent Governance

Explains how authority, delegation, trust, reputation, and accountability are coordinated.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
governance - agent-governance - authority - agent
Open paper page
WEB4-017

Stewardship Systems

Defines stewardship as the governance bridge between authority, native assets, registries, wallets, and applied systems.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
stewardship - stewardship-system - stewardship-lifecycle - steward-role - authority - delegation - accountability - governance - native-asset-registry - web4-wallet - intelligence-infrastructure - agent - mission-alignment - registry-rights - revocation - provenance - auditability
Open paper page

Protocol Canon

WEB4-006

Delegation as Infrastructure

Establishes delegation as a first-class infrastructure layer.

Primary Authority Site: web4protocols.org
delegation - delegated-authority - workflow - protocol
Open paper page
WEB4-011

Protocols of Delegated Authority

Defines protocols as the rule systems that make delegation interoperable.

Primary Authority Site: web4protocols.org
protocol - delegated-authority - interoperability - schema
Open paper page
WEB4-026

Multi-Agent Governance

Defines multi-agent governance across human-agent, agent-agent, organization-agent, and institutional interactions, including authority graphs at scale, delegation at scale, protocol governance, trust, identity, provenance, verification, conflict resolution, escalation, coalitions, competition, and failure modes.

Primary Authority Site: web4protocols.org
multi-agent-governance - agent-coalition - agent-conflict - agent-escalation - governance-capture - coordination-collapse - agent-collusion - multi-principal-system - authority-graph - delegation - delegated-authority - protocol - portable-trust - identity - provenance - truth-claim - verification - stewardship - agent-governance
Open paper page
WEB4-027

The Constitutional Agent

Defines a Constitutional Agent as an agent carrying explicit constraints, authority boundaries, escalation obligations, stewardship duties, auditability requirements, verification requirements, and revocation mechanisms.

Primary Authority Site: web4protocols.org
constitutional-agent - constitutional-constraint - constitutional-protocol - authority-boundary - escalation-obligation - audit-obligation - revocation-mechanism - constitutional-drift - authority-graph - delegation - delegated-authority - identity - provenance - truth-claim - verification - portable-trust - stewardship - protocol - multi-agent-governance - agent-governance
Open paper page

Infrastructure Canon

WEB4-007

Registry-Based Coordination

Explains registries as the memory and coordination substrate of Web4.

Primary Authority Site: web4registry.org
registry - record - verification - credential
Open paper page
WEB4-012

The Web4 Stack

Defines the layered architecture of Web4.

Primary Authority Site: web4stack.org
web4-stack - semantic-layer - protocol - intelligence-infrastructure
Open paper page
WEB4-025

Institutional Memory Systems

Defines institutional memory as durable infrastructure for intelligent organizations, connecting records, decisions, authority, delegation, registries, trust, reputation, intelligence, native assets, wallets, stewardship, attention, provenance, truth, identity, and lifecycle state.

Primary Authority Site: web4infrastructure.org
institutional-memory - memory-system - organizational-memory - decision-memory - record-memory - authority-memory - memory-stewardship - institutional-amnesia - memory-capture - registry - registry-state - identity - authority - delegation - trust - reputation - intelligence-infrastructure - native-asset-registry - web4-wallet - stewardship - attention - provenance - truth-claim - portable-trust
Open paper page

Intelligence Canon

WEB4-008

The Trust Layer

Explains trust as the compression layer of coordination.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
trust - credential - reputation - verification
Open paper page
WEB4-009

Reputation Systems for Agents

Defines reputation as the memory architecture of trust.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
reputation - trust - registry - reputation-graph
Open paper page
WEB4-013

Intelligence as Infrastructure

Explains how intelligence becomes a reusable infrastructure layer.

Primary Authority Site: web4intelligence.org
intelligence-infrastructure - micro-model - orchestration - trust
Open paper page
WEB4-020

Truth, Claims, and Verification

Defines truth as a governed claim lifecycle across evidence, verification, judgment, contradiction, revision, supersession, appeal, registries, wallets, attention, and intelligent systems.

Primary Authority Site: web4intelligence.org
truth - truth-claim - claim - verification - evidence - judgment - consensus - contradiction - revision - supersession - appeal - authority - provenance - registry - native-asset-registry - web4-wallet - attention - trust - reputation
Open paper page

Native Canon

WEB4-014

Native Value Systems

Defines native authority-network assets beyond money, including authority, reputation, trust, verification, provenance, contribution, governance, knowledge, and agents.

Primary Authority Site: web4-native.com
authority - reputation - trust - verification - provenance - delegation - stewardship - mission-alignment - knowledge - citation - canonical-knowledge - truth-claims - contribution - impact - signal-quality - attention - consensus - judgment - registry-rights - agent
Open paper page
WEB4-015

The Native Asset Registry

Defines the institutional memory layer for Web4 native assets, including issuance, verification, revocation, supersession, query, history, and registry relationships.

Primary Authority Site: web4registry.org
native-asset-registry - registry - identity - authority - reputation - verification - trust - delegation - stewardship - mission-alignment - knowledge - citation - canonical-knowledge - truth-claims - contribution - impact - signal-quality - attention - consensus - judgment - registry-rights - agent - provenance - revocation - supersession - expiration
Open paper page
WEB4-016

The Web4 Wallet

Defines the Web4 Wallet as a native identity, authority, reputation, verification, delegation, contribution, governance, and knowledge container.

Primary Authority Site: web4-native.com
web4-wallet - wallet-view - wallet-operation - native-asset-registry - identity - authority - reputation - trust - verification - provenance - delegation - stewardship - mission-alignment - knowledge - citation - canonical-knowledge - truth-claims - contribution - impact - signal-quality - attention - consensus - judgment - registry-rights - agent
Open paper page
WEB4-018

Attention Systems

Defines ATTN as a native primitive and attention as the allocation layer beneath cognition, intelligence, governance, and value systems.

Primary Authority Site: web4-native.com
attention - attention-event - attention-allocation - attention-registry - attention-stewardship - authority - trust - reputation - intelligence-infrastructure - native-asset-registry - web4-wallet - stewardship-system - agent - signal-quality - discovery - governance
Open paper page
WEB4-022

The Native Asset Lifecycle

Defines lifecycle states and transitions as the bridge between native value systems, registries, wallets, stewardship, provenance, truth, attention, identity, and governance.

Primary Authority Site: web4-native.com
asset-lifecycle - asset-state - verification-state - delegation-state - transfer-state - supersession-state - revocation-state - archive-state - native-asset-registry - web4-wallet - stewardship - attention - provenance - truth-claim - identity - registry-state
Open paper page

Registry Canon

WEB4-019

Provenance Systems

Defines PROV as a first-class Web4 primitive and explains how provenance preserves origin, custody, lineage, attribution, delegation, evidence, use, and legitimacy across registries, wallets, truth claims, and authority systems.

Primary Authority Site: web4registry.org
provenance - provenance-event - chain-of-custody - lineage - attribution - evidence-chain - provenance-laundering - orphaned-record - authority - delegation - registry - native-asset-registry - trust - reputation - web4-wallet - stewardship - attention - truth-claim
Open paper page
WEB4-023

Registry Queries and State

Defines registry state, query authority, query provenance, state snapshots, query classes, lifecycle state, and state failure modes as the operational layer of registry infrastructure.

Primary Authority Site: web4registry.org
registry-state - query - query-authority - query-provenance - state-snapshot - state-transition - state-visibility - audit-query - registry - record - identity - authority - delegation - provenance - truth-claim - native-asset-registry - verification - stewardship - reputation - trust
Open paper page
WEB4-024

Portable Trust Networks

Defines portable trust, trust federation, trust translation, trust context, trust decay, trust recovery, trust domains, and trust-network failure modes.

Primary Authority Site: web4registry.org
portable-trust - trust-network - trust-domain - trust-federation - trust-translation - trust-context - trust-decay - trust-recovery - trust - reputation - identity - provenance - truth-claim - registry - registry-state - verification - intelligence-infrastructure - agent
Open paper page
WEB4-029

Dispute, Appeal, and Adjudication

Defines disputes, appeals, adjudication, legitimacy in conflict, identity and provenance in disputes, truth claims, registry evidence, trust and disagreement, governance and adjudication, constitutional review, escalation models, appeal models, judgment systems, adjudication lifecycles, and conflict failure modes.

Primary Authority Site: web4registry.org
dispute - appeal - adjudication - judgment - review - evidence-record - escalation-path - governance-deadlock - legitimacy-collapse - adjudication-capture - identity - provenance - truth-claim - registry-state - portable-trust - governance - multi-agent-governance - constitutional-agent
Open paper page

Ontology Canon

WEB4-021

Identity Systems

Defines identity as the foundational Web4 primitive that answers who this is and binds authority, trust, reputation, provenance, verification, governance, stewardship, wallets, and native assets to accountable participants.

Primary Authority Site: web4systems.org
identity - identity-system - human-identity - organization-identity - agent-identity - machine-identity - credential - credential-chain - identity-proof - authority - delegation - trust - reputation - governance - registry - native-asset-registry - web4-wallet - stewardship - attention - provenance - truth-claim
Open paper page

Native Asset Canon

WEB4-028

Authority-Native Economies

Defines how native Web4 assets become economic systems, including authority economies, trust economies, reputation economies, attention economies, stewardship economies, knowledge economies, contribution economies, verification economies, mission economies, registry-based economies, wallet-based economies, lifecycle economics, and failure modes.

Primary Authority Site: web4-native.com
authority-economy - native-economy - trust-economy - reputation-economy - attention-economy - stewardship-economy - contribution-economy - mission-economy - authority-inflation - trust-capture - authority - trust - reputation - attention - stewardship - knowledge - contribution - verification - judgment - mission-alignment - native-asset-registry - web4-wallet - asset-lifecycle - registry-state
Open paper page

Ecosystem Canon

WEB4-030

The Web4 Operating Model

Synthesizes WEB4-001 through WEB4-029 into an operating model connecting identity, provenance, truth, trust, authority, delegation, governance, stewardship, memory, adjudication, registries, native assets, wallets, intelligence, protocols, and applied domains.

Primary Authority Site: web4ecosystem.org
identity - provenance - truth - trust - authority - delegation - governance - stewardship - institutional-memory - adjudication - registry - native-asset-registry - web4-wallet - intelligence-infrastructure - protocol - multi-agent-governance - constitutional-agent - native-economy - robot - mission-authority
Open paper page

Organizational Value Canon

WEB4-031

The Organizational Value Translation Layer

Defines the Organizational Value Translation Layer, Canonical Organizational Value Ontology, Valgraf proof architecture, framework adapters, evidence normalization, organizational proof, API-first architecture, and the Volume 2 bridge from enterprise systems to organizational value.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
organizational-value - organizational-value-translation-layer - canonical-organizational-value-ontology - translation-adapter - framework-adapter - evidence-normalization - organizational-proof - contribution-intelligence - api-first-architecture - ontology-first-architecture - mission - goal - participant - evidence - contribution - attribution - trust - recognition - compensation-policy - ai-participant - valgraf - missionstack - incentivis - canondraw
Open paper page
WEB4-032

The Organizational Value Ontology

Defines the canonical Organizational Value Ontology across mission, organization, governance, work, evidence, proof, contribution, compensation, telemetry, relationships, AI participants, API principles, and ontology-first architecture.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
organizational-value-ontology - mission - vision - strategy - objective - goal - initiative - milestone - outcome - organization - business-unit - department - team - participant - human - ai-agent - role - stakeholder - icars-assignment - authority - delegation - accountability - responsibility - consultation - information - support - policy - rule - approval - decision - mission-node - work-item - activity - task - deliverable - dependency - artifact - evidence - proof - provenance - verification - confidence - trust-signal - contribution - attribution - recognition - compensation - telemetry
Open paper page
WEB4-033

Valgraf

Defines Valgraf as both a trusted organizational value graph and the process that transforms mission-contextual work, evidence, provenance, verification, proof, contribution, recognition, compensation, and learning into contribution intelligence.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
valgraf - organizational-proof-engine - organizational-value-graph - contribution-intelligence - mission-context - work - evidence - provenance - verification - proof - contribution - recognition - compensation - organizational-learning - trust - trust-signal - attribution - confidence - icars-assignment - prm - missionstack - incentivis - canondraw - valgraf-personal - enterprise-adapter - canonical-proof-object
Open paper page
WEB4-034

ICARS

Defines ICARS as the governance language of the Organizational Value Architecture and PRM as the evidence-generated Provable Responsibility Matrix that verifies ICARS assignments through runtime proof.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
icars - provable-responsibility-matrix - prm - inform - consult - accountable - responsible - support - expected-governance - observed-governance - mission-node - icars-assignment - delegation - accepted-responsibility - authority - responsibility - accountability - work - evidence - proof - contribution - recognition - compensation - trust - governance-compliance - human-participant - ai-agent - missionstack - valgraf - incentivis
Open paper page
WEB4-035

Organizational Proof

Defines Organizational Proof as verified evidence placed into mission context, combining evidence, provenance, verification, confidence, governance, and context to bridge enterprise activity and contribution.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
organizational-proof - evidence - provenance - verification - confidence - governance-context - mission-context - trust - trust-signal - contribution - recognition - compensation - organizational-learning - proof-object - chain-of-evidence - immutable-evidence - participant-proof - mission-proof - valgraf - icars - prm - canondraw - enterprise-adapter - ai-output
Open paper page
WEB4-036

Organizational Accounting

Defines Organizational Accounting, the Organizational Value Ledger, evidence as journal entry, proof as validation, contribution as mission-contextual value, and Valgraf as the Organizational Accounting engine.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
organizational-accounting - organizational-value-ledger - organizational-value - financial-accounting - managerial-accounting - cost-accounting - project-accounting - human-capital-metrics - mission-capital - trust-capital - knowledge-capital - contribution-capital - relationship-capital - capability-capital - innovation-capital - human-capital - evidence - proof - contribution - recognition - compensation - trust - organizational-learning - missionstack - valgraf - icars - prm - canondraw
Open paper page
WEB4-037

MissionStack

Defines MissionStack as the mission-centric execution layer for mission graphs, mission nodes, ICARS governance, humans and AI participants, Valgraf proof, Incentivis reinforcement, telemetry, and continuous mission learning.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
missionstack - mission - strategy - objective - goal - mission-node - mission-graph - mission-workspace - delegation - execution - evidence - proof - contribution - recognition - compensation - mission-learning - icars-assignment - prm - human-participant - ai-agent - artifact-registry - dependency-graph - stakeholder-map - contribution-graph - trust-network - mission-telemetry - valgraf - incentivis - canondraw
Open paper page
WEB4-038

Incentivis

Defines Incentivis as the behavioral reinforcement layer for recognition strategy, credit allocation policies, compensation models, Goodhart risk analysis, fairness analysis, incentive simulation, and organizational learning.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
incentivis - incentive-architecture - recognition - crediting - credit-allocation-policy - compensation-model - behavioral-reinforcement - fairness-analysis - goodhart-risk - incentive-simulation - organizational-learning - engagement - entitlement - mission-context - contribution-intelligence - proof - contribution - future-behavior - mission-outcomes - intrinsic-motivation - extrinsic-motivation - collaboration-incentives - valgraf - missionstack - valgraf-personal - canondraw
Open paper page
WEB4-039

Valgraf Personal

Defines Valgraf Personal as the individual projection of the Organizational Value Architecture through Personal Value Graphs, contribution intelligence, evidence-backed career records, appeals, privacy governance, and AI-assisted growth.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
valgraf-personal - personal-value-graph - individual-value-graph - personal-contribution-intelligence - mission-history - contribution-timeline - evidence-timeline - recognition-history - trust-profile - skills-graph - capability-growth - career-narrative - learning-recommendation - appeal - career-timeline - mission-portfolio - contribution-portfolio - evidence-portfolio - capability-map - skill-evolution - career-architect - learning-architect - mission-advisor - contribution-coach - recognition-advisor - privacy-governance - individual-visibility-rights
Open paper page
WEB4-040

Organizational Value Architecture

Defines OVA as the practical architecture connecting MissionStack, Valgraf Enterprise, Incentivis, Valgraf Personal, CanonDraw, shared ontology, translation adapters, AI participants, and enterprise systems through ontology-first organizational value.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
organizational-value-architecture - ova - mission-architecture - governance-architecture - execution-architecture - evidence-architecture - proof-architecture - contribution-architecture - recognition-incentive-architecture - compensation-architecture - telemetry - organizational-learning - missionstack - valgraf-enterprise - incentivis - valgraf-personal - canondraw - organizational-value-ontology - translation-adapter - shared-platform - knowledge-graph - reasoning-engine - projection-engine - ai-participant
Open paper page
WEB4-041

Wallet Security for Machine Actors

Defines how machine authority becomes real access without granting sovereignty to external providers: current authority compiles into desired enforcement, provider state is independently reread, protected-path access is observed, contradictions remain visible, and revocation becomes locally effective before external convergence.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
web4-wallet - wallet-security - authority-grant - delegated-authority - continuous-authorization - enforcement-provider - enforcement-evidence - governance-constraints - capabilities - revocation - roles - responsibilities - relationships - rules - reviews - responses
Open paper page

Security Canon

WEB4-042

Runtime Governance and the 6Rs Security Model

Defines the 6Rs runtime loop, separates organizational facts from permission, and specifies versioned rules, governed reviews, pre-approved responses, local-first denial, and evidence-backed authority change.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
roles - responsibilities - relationships - rules - reviews - responses - runtime-governance - authority-change
Open paper page
WEB4-043

Security Evidence and Provenance for Machine Authority

Defines claim-oriented evidence profiles, authority-to-outcome provenance, revocation evidence, signer-generation trust, transparency history, trusted-time boundaries, privacy-minimized proof, cross-domain provenance with local sovereignty, runtime-independent verification, and evidence feedback into governance.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
machine-authority - security-evidence - claim - evidence-profile - provenance - correlation - execution-evidence - outcome-evidence - revocation-evidence - signer-trust - transparency - trusted-time - independent-verification - cross-domain-provenance - historical-accountability - governance-response
Open paper page
WEB4-044

Continuous Authorization, Assurance, and Security Response

Defines decision lifetime, material-fact triggers, identity-attestation-posture-authority separation, assurance states and drift, bounded security response, partial containment, security conservation, and fresh-epoch recovery.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
continuous-authorization - decision-dependency - continuous-assurance - runtime-trust - attestation - posture - reevaluation - challenge - suspension - containment - recovery-epoch - provider-convergence
Open paper page
WEB4-045

Governed Policy Evolution for Autonomous Systems

Defines a complete governed authority transition through NEW_ALLOW and NEW_DENY analysis, transitive blast radius, fingerprint-bound approval, shadow and canary gates, atomic activation, assurance invalidation, and rollback without erasure.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
security-policy-artifact - semantic-fingerprint - new-allow - new-deny - blast-radius - exact-approval - shadow-evaluation - canary - atomic-activation - rollback - agent-generated-policy
Open paper page
WEB4-046

Capability-Bound Credential Access for Machine Actors

Defines operation-oriented, provider-neutral credential realization with bounded use, secretless consumers, local compromise containment, delegation and federation without secret transfer, and credential-use provenance without disclosure.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
credential-broker - capability - realization-credential - secretless-consumer - single-use - credential-generation - rotation - compromise - sanitization - credential-provenance
Open paper page
WEB4-047

Bounded Autonomy and Mission Governance

Defines bounded autonomy as the intersection of per-action authority and a persistent Mission, conserving purpose, budgets, context, sequence, depth, and revocation across concurrency, restart, delegation, and federation.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
mission - bounded-autonomy - purpose - authority-context - action-budget - resource-budget - sequence - checkpoint - sub-mission - atomic-reservation - uncertain-accounting - completion
Open paper page
WEB4-048

Federated Machine Trust and Sovereign Authority

Defines federation as verifiable external trust plus locally sovereign authority, preserving attenuation, non-transitivity, Mission and delegation bounds, privacy, credential custody, trust lifecycle, and separate assertion provenance.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
trust-domain - federation-agreement - external-principal - capability-mapping - resource-mapping - role-mapping - attenuation - audience - replay - pairwise-identity - trust-bundle - local-sovereignty
Open paper page
WEB4-049

Durable Trust: Time, Preservation, and Long-Term Verification

Defines runtime-independent future verification that survives key retirement, compromise, algorithm change, provider disappearance, and institutional change without hiding trust gaps or creating authority.

Primary Authority Site: web4research.org
durable-trust - preservation-package - signer-generation - historical-trust - trusted-time - transparency - independent-anchor - retention-class - renewal-lineage - crypto-agility - offline-verification
Open paper page

Paper Graph

The Evidence Layer

Papers are the source of truth for the Web4 canon.