Offline Verification Runbook

Air-gapped reproducibility, cryptographic manifests, and research boundaries.

Mandatory Scientific Disclaimer
A successful test run in QAVEN confirms that a candidate policy strictly conforms to the tested finite event sequence under the defined model. It does not constitute formal mathematical verification of security or certification that a wallet, chain, or protocol is quantum-resistant.

The Core Verification Axiom

QAVEN adheres to the non-negotiable principle: AI does not determine truth. The role of the adversarial AI (SEEKER) is only to propose candidate challenge sequences, while the defensive AI (KEEPER) proposes repaired policy rules. The frozen deterministic verification kernel—written in Python with subprocess execution of OpenSSL 3.5+—is the sole arbiter of whether an invariant divergence exists.

Air-Gapped Offline Reproduction

Any third party can independently reproduce our published research findings on an isolated machine with zero network access and without an LLM API key.

CLI VERIFICATION COMMAND

# 1. Clone the repository
$ git clone https://github.com/wealthy-org/qaven.git && cd qaven

# 2. Download the published research evidence pack (pack.json) from Observation Room
# 3. Execute deterministic replay CLI
$ python3 -m backend.ops.replay --pack evidence_pack_1.json

[SUCCESS] Verified OK: Deterministic verdict 'VALID_COUNTEREXAMPLE' reproduced with identical trace digest

Cryptographic Manifest Verification

Each evidence pack contains an immutable manifest dictionary mapping every constituent component (spec, policy, challenge, fixtures, trace, and environment) to its SHA-256 digest.

If even a single byte of a policy rule, challenge event, or fixture parameter is modified, the manifest verification check halts immediately with a tamper detection exception, preventing the publication of forged claims.

Chapter 1 Policy Invariants Enforced

Dual Signatures: Both classical ECDSA-P256 and post-quantum ML-DSA-44 signatures are strictly required to prepare or confirm a transition.
Exact Transcript Match: Confirming a transition requires an exact byte-for-byte match with the prepared transition payload.
Permanent Key Retirement: Once entering PQ_ACTIVE (epoch 1), the legacy ECDSA key is permanently retired. Any subsequent legacy operation is rejected without fallback.
Scoped Nonces: Nonces are scoped per message type and consumed only upon successful state transitions, eliminating replay attacks.

What is Explicitly Out of Scope

In accordance with Section 21 of the specification, QAVEN does not build: token contracts, staking mechanisms, on-chain automated trading agents, or general wallet custody software. The product is an auditable offchain research testbed.