Provenance System

FieldHash

Tamper-evident audit records for governed AI memory and long-retention digital evidence. FieldHash combines offline-verifiable certificates, hash-chained events, and PQC-capable signatures with optional hardware-executed quantum fingerprints where required. For governed memory, it can bind local-model decisions to portable checkpoint and certificate evidence where configured.

The Threat Model

Harvest Now, Decrypt Later. Adversaries are capturing encrypted data today, waiting for quantum computers to break current cryptography. When that happens, archived trade records, audit trails, compliance packages, and long-retention evidence become exposed.

This is not limited to AI. Trade documentation, compliance records, investigation files, and long-retention institutional evidence all need to remain tamper-evident for years, sometimes in degraded or offline verification environments.

The problem is not only whether a signature verifies. It is whether an auditor can still inspect the exact evidence bundle when providers are down, networks are unavailable, or a signing pipeline is later questioned.

Current RSA and ECC signatures have an expiration date. We just don't know exactly when.

The Solution

FieldHash provides offline-verifiable evidence for long-horizon data integrity by combining modern post-quantum cryptography with optional quantum hardware anchoring. It is backend-agnostic and can use available provider APIs now. In the governed-memory stack, the same evidence layer can attach to hash-chained memory events, signed checkpoints, certificates, and transparency anchors. Evidence bundles are designed to be self-contained: verifiers inspect signed hashes, policy metadata, and provenance statistics locally rather than sending raw protected content to a third-party validator.

Post-Quantum Signatures

NIST ML-DSA (Dilithium)—standardized, battle-tested, quantum-resistant. Optional ML-KEM (Kyber) for encrypted attachments.

Content Binding

SHA-256 (primary) and SHA-512 (audit trail) for cryptographic content binding. Protected artifacts can be immutably linked to their evidence when the provenance path is enabled.

Optional Quantum Hardware Anchoring

When IBM Quantum or Quantum Inspire hardware is available, FieldHash captures device-conditioned fingerprints, distribution digests, noise statistics, and calibration context. Users do not need to own a quantum computer; the system can call available backends through provider APIs.

Simulation by Default

Full cryptographic security without specialized hardware. Simulation mode covers many near-term workflows, while hardware-backed profiles add an extra physical provenance layer when higher assurance is required.

HSM/Vault Integration

Private keys never leave secure custody. Zero egress to application memory. Non-exportable signing keys in Vault, KMS, or HSM.

Local Verification & Continuity

Verifiers can validate the signed evidence bundle locally using versioned trust profiles. If an issuer, provider, or FieldHash service is unreachable, workflows can continue and verification can occur from cached evidence without adding a new inline dependency.

Measured Evidence

FieldHash is not a concept-only security claim. It has been executed on real quantum hardware with reproducible evidence and adversarial validation.

Hardware Backends

Executed on IBM Quantum and Quantum Inspire with auditable job records.

Baseline Finding

A standard-profile uniform-blend attack passed in 15/800 trials (1.875%).

Hardened Closure

The hardened profile closed that measured gap to 0/800 under the same attack family.

Adaptive Result

Production-gated adaptive testing produced 0/5000 successful forgeries per tested model.

The public evidence package includes the preprint, execution reports, adversarial benchmarks, and reproducibility materials.

The Workflow

Five steps from content to verifiable evidence:

1

Hash

Content bound with SHA-256/SHA-512

2

Execute

Parameterized circuit run on simulation or available QPU backends via API

3

Fingerprint

Distribution digest, device metadata, noise statistics, and calibration context captured when available

4

Sign

Evidence package signed with ML-DSA through Vault/KMS/HSM or a configured PQC signer

5

Verify

Offline verification using versioned trust profiles and local policy

Verification Model

Fully offline-capable. No network required for verification. Evidence packages are self-contained and can be validated in air-gapped environments. They contain hashes, provenance metadata, and policy labels rather than raw protected documents.

Trust Tiers

Strict— Highest-assurance hardware-backed verification
Hardened— Tightened hardware profile validated against measured spoofing
Standard— Hardware-preferred baseline assurance
Offline— Air-gapped optimized

Production deployments use composed verification: statistical policy gates plus signature-bound integrity metadata. Profiles are versioned for forward compatibility and can enforce minimum shots, drift windows, mode policy, and hardware-vs-simulation requirements.

Evidence is content-addressed for efficient distribution and can support ETag/304 revalidation at scale. Connected deployments can distribute verifier keys through signed trust bundles or internal JWKS endpoints; disconnected deployments can pin the same trust material inside their enclave.

Security Architecture

Client mTLS and JWT authentication
Least-privilege RBAC and tenant isolation
Rate limiting (100 req/min)
PII-aware logging with redaction policies
Non-exportable signing keys in HSM/Vault
Signed trust bundles or internal JWKS for verifier key distribution
Optional transparency logging, off by default for privacy-sensitive deployments
EU-region cloud, customer VPC, or on-prem deployment paths where configured
Named subprocessor review, DPA/SCC support, and retention/export/delete controls for enterprise review
Customer-owned audit logs with SIEM/GRC export for governance teams

For European or regulated deployments, the intended enterprise posture is controlled deployment plus evidence: customer-approved model routing, EU-region cloud, customer VPC or on-prem infrastructure, documented subprocessors, retention and deletion controls, and audit-log ownership. FieldHash can supply verifiable evidence records for counsel, CISO, and AI-governance review; it is not legal advice and does not make an AI system compliant by itself.

FieldHash binds selected major artifacts and governance decisions to tamper-evident evidence records. Governed-memory event logs can be hash-chained, checkpointed, signed, bound to FieldHash-compatible certificates, and anchored to a transparency log where configured. In a Dilithium-enabled local governed-memory diagnostic, the checkpoint and certificate used CRYSTALS-Dilithium3 signatures without PQC fallback while local Ollama handled the answer path; the demo can also fail loudly when PQC is required but unavailable. Operator-resistance depends on retaining that transparency log outside the governed-memory operator boundary; FieldHash does not claim that every private memory, transient model output, or internal trace is public or permanently signed.

Learn More

Read the strategic brief first for a concise narrative, then review the public evidence package for the measured hardware, spoofing, and reproducibility artifacts: