Technology

Every ceremony step anchored on a DAG

Certus Ledger is designed so that the integrity of the signing ceremony does not depend on trusting a vendor database. The evidence chain is anchored on a distributed acyclic graph (DAG) to make tampering detectable and verification independent.

Prepare → Sign → Finalize Merkle-root anchoring Evidence continuity AES & QES-ready

Signing ceremony (high level)

Prepare: document revision is fingerprinted; ceremony context is created.
Sign: each signer creates a signature bound to the document fingerprint and ceremony context.
Finalize: the final sealed artifact is produced; the completed ceremony is evidenced and anchored.

At each boundary, Certus Ledger commits cryptographic fingerprints (hashes / Merkle roots) of the ceremony state to the DAG.

What gets anchored

Document fingerprints

Hashes for each revision boundary so any change is detectable.

Ceremony sequencing

Evidence that steps occurred in the required order with no hidden rewrites.

Signer binding proofs

Metadata and proofs that bind the signature to the signer and the exact document state.

Final sealed artifact

A fingerprint of the final output so the delivered contract can be verified later.

AES & QES positioning

AES

Strong binding to the document and ceremony context
Tamper-evident sealing
Evidence trail designed for audits and disputes

QES

Architected for integration with QTSPs
Evidence continuity across the ceremony
Ledger anchoring of QES-relevant events

Why it’s more secure than incumbents

Incumbent risk: centralized logs can be altered, replaced, or reinterpreted internally — and buyers often have no independent way to verify.

Certus Ledger outcome: the ceremony’s integrity is evidenced and anchored externally, making tampering detectable and verification portable.

Detects unauthorized changes and hidden rewrites
Reduces reliance on “trust the vendor” attestations
Preserves verification ability long after execution