Explainers
Canonical source-backed explainers. Each explainer cites the source revision its claims were checked against. Clearproof is pilot-stage software; these pages describe the repository as it is, without audit, customer or compliance claims. For shorter, change-driven items see Updates and the RSS feed.
- Wallet authority is not wallet ownership — the trust boundaries in Clearproof's wallet verification2026-11-09 · approved
A signature proves that a key signed a message at a moment. It does not prove who owns the wallet, who controls it today, or who is allowed to settle a transfer. Clearproof's wallet ownership extension (merged November 2026) is built around that gap: a bound SIWE challenge, separate handling for EOAs and smart accounts, explicit EIP-7702 delegation checks, a supervisor-readable evidence export, and a staged circuit that has no verifier. This explainer walks where the trust boundaries actually sit.
- Month two in the open — three releases, hardened rails, and the same honest gaps2026-11-02 · approved
Month two of building in the open delivered the largest release since the pilot went public — verified-proof semantics, durable proving jobs, an explicit HKDF salt requirement — plus two patch releases that fixed our own broken version reporting on the record, a BLS12-381 decision point, and an unchanged honest list: no audit, no production deployment, no external feedback yet.
- Rejecting more than bad proofs — scalar aliasing, infinity and non-canonical points in a BLS verifier2026-10-19 · approved
A pairing check can verify the equation perfectly and still accept a proof that is not a proof. The BLS12-381 benchmark verifier from ADR 0002 accepted s + r in place of a public signal s, because the G1 multi-scalar-multiplication precompile reduces scalars mod the field order. The verifier now reverts on signals at or above r, on infinity points in A, B or C, and on a non-canonical y on A — with tests for each case. This explainer walks the three edge cases and the honest scope of the fix.
- What the proof does not check — trusted issuers, published roots and configuration2026-10-12 · approved
A Groth16 proof can be cryptographically valid and still prove nothing you should act on. The pilot-transfer-v3 circuit enforces credential, sanctions and transfer binding inside the statement, but issuers, root publishers and configuration are trusted inputs no circuit can check — and the eight public signals can still be correlated. This explainer walks the trust boundary from the current source.
- Investigating missing information — the pilot observability and investigation workflow2026-10-05 · approved
Clearproof has no single readiness endpoint, and a missing result is a finding, not a gap to fill. This explainer walks the documented pilot observability surfaces — what each can tell you, what it cannot, and the investigation workflow that keeps absence of evidence distinct from authorization.
- Month one in the open — what changed, and what is still open2026-10-02 · approved
One month of building in the open, in facts: a working source pilot, two npm releases, a reproducible issue path, and an honest list of what is still missing — audits, production keys, automated deploys and external feedback.
- Contributing useful feedback — the reproducible issue path in Clearproof2026-09-30 · approved
A bug report is only useful if the person reading it can reproduce it. Clearproof's CLI builds a pre-filled GitHub issue link locally — versions, platform, an optional privacy-filtered doctor summary — and nothing is sent until you open the link. This explainer walks that path and its privacy choices.
- Portable evidence review — taking the receipt out of the operator's hands2026-09-28 · approved
Clearproof's retained evidence is exported as a recipient-encrypted HPKE bundle and reviewed offline by a process that disables its own networking, with every pin supplied by the reviewer rather than the exported bundle. This explainer walks through that path and the three outcomes it can report.
- USD cents without a price feed — how the pilot proof handles valuation2026-09-22 · approved
The pilot circuit proves exact USD-cent arithmetic over a quoted price, but no oracle tells it what the price is. Reading the scoped valuation approval design shows where pricing trust actually lives — and why a proof of arithmetic is not a proof of price.
- Verifying a Clearproof proof without trusting Clearproof2026-09-21 · approved
Clearproof's TypeScript SDK ships no baked-in proving or verification keys, and the CLI's verify command takes a proof file plus any verification key you point it at. This explainer walks through what an independent verifier can check — and the one signal block that a pairing check alone would let a prover abuse.
- Who verifies what — circuit, registry and application responsibilities in Clearproof2026-09-17 · approved
A zero-knowledge proof is one verifier among several. Reading where Clearproof's circuit stops and the registry and application take over is the difference between evaluating the system and over-crediting the math.
- The pilot proof's eight public signals — what they show and what they hide2026-09-16 · approved
A Clearproof pilot proof publishes exactly eight public signals. Reading them is the fastest way to understand what a verifier learns without the encrypted envelope — and what it still cannot conclude.
- What Clearproof does — and what a valid proof does not establish2026-09-13 · approved
Clearproof combines scoped zero-knowledge statements, encrypted transfer information, policy decisions and retained evidence for controlled evaluation. This explainer walks through what that means in the current source, and where the proof's guarantee stops.