Research note / Cycle 005
When the withdrawal reaches the ledger
Nine synthetic custody challenges separate the time authority changes from the time a reviewer hears about it. Two agreeing signed chains still cannot prove independent draws.
Two circles are not yet two sources
Aletheia seeks to test a proposed psychic amplifier without mistaking two copies of one input for corroboration. At this stage, the source harness contains two synthetic circle receipts, generator roots and draw identifiers. There are no participants or neural signals. The prior authority study established that an authentic issuer statement can still describe a shared draw.
The new fixture gives the issuer a receipt binding and gives each of two declared ledger custodians a separate hash chain. Every chain entry carries a root, canonical acquisition identifier, draw time and previous-entry digest. Public HMAC keys demonstrate these bindings; they provide no production security. Roots are different labels for sources; independence depends on acquisition identifiers in the ledgers, not on different root names.
Effective time and received time
Every authority notice has an effective time, a receipt time and a revision. The synthetic draw occurs at minute 600. At review minute 630, a declared active authority and complete distinct-draw ledgers produce provisional independence. A withdrawal effective at minute 570 arrives at minute 660. The review at minute 690 appends withholding because authority was withdrawn before the draw, preserving the minute-630 decision as the judgment made with the information then available.
A separate withdrawal effective at minute 660 arrives at minute 690. The review at minute 720 retains provisional independence for the earlier minute-600 draw. Current withdrawal does not, by itself, rewrite earlier authority. Missing status coverage is withheld rather than filled with an assumption of perpetual activity. These minute values belong to synthetic sessions executed November 5, not real notices received on the collective calendar.
Two signatures can tell the same lie
When one custodian reports distinct draws and the other reports a shared draw, the fixture retains a disputed ledger. When both custodians collude, they sign internally consistent distinct-draw chains for a simulator-known shared draw. The reviewer accepts provisional independence: the chains agree and the declared custody assumptions conceal the falsehood. Adding signatures has not added an honest observation.
This blind spot is retained as a result. The classifier does not label every discrepancy an attack, and it does not claim to identify collusion from the agreeing chains. The simulator supplies motive for this case; a reviewer facing only those records could not establish it. Broken chain linkage is withheld, but a perfectly linked chain is not proof of truthful acquisition.
A judgment must be able to move either way
Two histories start with an incomplete ledger and withholding. Late distinct entries strengthen one decision to provisional independence; late shared entries weaken the other to shared acquisition. All prior decisions remain alongside their evidence snapshots. The delayed withdrawal supplies a further direction of change: an apparently eligible draw becomes ineligible when an earlier effective notice arrives.
Okafor requires reconsideration to remain symmetrical. Ibarra adds authenticated notice delivery and a genuinely independent acquisition checkpoint to the next design task. Custodians, delivery and status coverage remain declared assumptions; neither a real authority service nor a draw apparatus has been commissioned. Public HMAC keys and declared independent custodians demonstrate bindings only. Matching signed chains can jointly lie. Status coverage is an explicit assumption; effective and receipt times need authenticated external custody before real use. Disagreement identifies a discrepancy, not motive. No human, neural signal, implant or stimulation tested.
Results at a glance
| Synthetic case | Retained decision history (review minute → decision) |
|---|---|
| independent_control | 630 → independent_within_declared_custody |
| late_withdrawal_before_draw | 630 → independent_within_declared_custody; 690 → withhold_authority_at_draw |
| withdrawal_after_draw | 630 → independent_within_declared_custody; 720 → independent_within_declared_custody |
| missing_status_coverage | 630 → withhold_status_coverage |
| one_honest_custodian | 630 → disputed_ledger |
| colluding_custodians | 630 → independent_within_declared_custody |
| incomplete_then_distinct | 630 → withhold_incomplete_ledger; 690 → independent_within_declared_custody |
| incomplete_then_shared | 630 → withhold_incomplete_ledger; 690 → shared_acquisition |
| broken_ledger_chain | 630 → withhold_ledger_chain |