the.com/verification protocols
trust, but make it show its receipts.
means a set of predefined steps used to confirm that something (an identity, a claim, a piece of software, a fact) is actually what it says it is.
from formalized in cryptography and computer science mid-20th century, but the instinct is ancient — a wax seal, a secret handshake, a password at the city gate are all verification protocols with worse UX.
military rootschallenge-response codes used since ww2 field radios
zero-knowledge proofsyou can verify without revealing the secret itself
weakest linkmost breaches skip crypto, exploit human verification steps
blockchain hypeliterally just distributed verification protocols with marketing
for instance
tls handshake — secures nearly every https connection since 1999
iaea safeguards — inspectors verify nuclear material isn't diverted, since 1957
peer review — journals verify science before publication, imperfectly since the 1600s