[ PROOFECONOMY ]™GlossaryOriginSpecsVerifiable Adversarial Proof
A Verifiable Adversarial Proof (VAP) is an adversarial test result that any third party can check without trusting the tester, the vendor or the buyer. The records, their signatures and their anchor are published or shared in full, so the result can be verified from the evidence alone.
What it means
Most security test results are verified by trust: the reader believes the lab, the vendor or the report. A Verifiable Adversarial Proof is verified by checking. The reader recomputes the hashes, checks the signatures and confirms the chain head against an external anchor.
The test
An adversarial result is a VAP only if a stranger can answer all of these from the evidence alone:
- What ran? The technique or payload, by hash.
- Against what? The system under test and its configuration.
- What happened? The outcome, including failures to run.
- Who saw it? An independent witness, by signature.
- When? A time fixed by an anchor no party controls.
- Was anything changed? The chain shows no gap or edit.
If any answer requires taking someone’s word, it is not a VAP. It is Self-Attestation.
Related terms
- Attested Adversarial Proof
- Minted Proof of Efficacy
- Open Verification
- Third-Party Adversarial Proof
- Time Anchor