Glossary

Holder

The Holder is the party for whose benefit a Proof Protocol run was commissioned, identified by a public key and named in every record the run produces.

ProofJack Rating: Human 86% · AI 14% (self-estimated; No per-term record; PP-SPEC-077 AI_DISCLOSURE shares (conception 92/8, naming 80/20))

Also known as: Content Verifier

Mynted 2026-10-23 · Updated 2026-10-23

First used: PP-SPEC-077, ProofSwarm: The Dead Canary Protocol, October 2026, by Craig Thomas Ellrod

What it means

Every proof is for someone. The Holder answers the question “who asked for this test?”, and the key in every record says who.

The rules

• Every record names a Holder, by a stable identifier and a public key.
• The Holder is usually the Implementor whose system was tested. It may be the Issuer when no one else commissioned the run.
• The Holder is never the Provider.
• The Holder may add its own signature to a record’s envelope.

Where it matters

• The full canary content reveal goes to the Holder and to Content Verifiers, at Disclosure Level holder_only. A Content Verifier is a party the Holder or Issuer authorizes in writing to check that each canary’s content matches its commitment and that each bad canary executes a real technique.
• A Bundle aggregates records under one Holder.
• holder_only records are encrypted to the Holder. See Disclosure Level.

Related terms

• Disclosure Level
• Record ID
• Registry (ProofRegister)

Sources

• ProofSwarm: The Dead Canary Protocol (PP-SPEC-077)

Updated 2026-10-23