Glossary
What is a verifier separated from the emitter?
The architectural property that the process running the recompute is distinct from the emitter that wrote the chain, and shares no credentials, state, or code with it. Independent walk, independent result.
§ 01 Definition
The one who checks is not the one who wrote.
The emitter writes entries and hash-links them; the verifier reads the stored entries and recomputes each entry’s hash forward from an anchored checkpoint. When the verifier completes the walk, the result is a statement by a party the emitter did not control. Against an operator who could rewrite and re-anchor the chain, that holds only once you configure an external anchor.
The scope of that verification is a different question, handled by what is recompute at the anchored recent horizon; this entry defines the separation property that makes any independent recompute meaningful in the first place.
§ 02 Questions
Verifier separation, answered.
How is verifier separated from emitter different from running a verifier alone?
Any process that walks a hash chain can be called a verifier. Without separation, the walker is running whatever the emitter allows it to run against whatever the emitter decides to show it.
What separations matter?
Three: (1) the verifier code is not code the emitter wrote or can rewrite at verify time; (2) the verifier reads the stored entries directly from a store the emitter cannot mutate at read-time; (3) the anchor value the verifier compares against is held on a substrate the emitter does not fully control, once you configure an external anchor; until then the chain is anchored internally.
§ 03 Related