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\title{The Lean Transparency Log:\\ Distributing Kernel-Checked Correctness Evidence\\ for Deployed Ed25519 Implementations}
\author{Olaf Horvath\\
\small Olaf.Horvath@zkdefi.org \quad ORCID 0009-0004-8008-5805
% \authortodo{if you have any institutional or personal-domain affiliation,
% use it here instead of / alongside the zkdefi.org address}
}
\date{July 2026 (revised)}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
Interactive theorem provers can certify functional correctness of deployed
cryptographic code, but the resulting assurance is expensive to consume:
re-checking a realistic proof corpus requires a proof toolchain and hours of
kernel time, which excludes almost every downstream user. We describe the
Lean Transparency Log (LTL), an RFC~9162-style transparency log whose leaves
are \emph{replay attestations}: signed statements that the Lean~4 proofs of a
specific Rust repository, at a specific git commit, re-check with exactly
their documented axiom sets. Consumers verify one signature and a logarithmic
inclusion proof in milliseconds; the kernel time is paid once, by the log
operator.

This paper makes the trust model precise and proves the consumer-facing
security claims. We define the attestation-transparency setting, give an
explicit adversary model in which the operator may be malicious, and prove:
completeness and soundness of the inclusion verifier (soundness via an
explicit reduction extracting a SHA-256 collision), the analogous consistency
statement, safety of the consumer's head-pinning state machine (equivocation
by the operator yields publicly verifiable evidence), and \emph{verdict
integrity}---consumers re-derive verification verdicts locally from observed
axiom cones, so the operator is trusted only for \emph{observations}, never
for \emph{verdicts}. A further design choice ties the log to its own subject
matter: tree heads are signed by a binary built from the very Ed25519
implementation whose correctness certificates are leaves of the log. We
report a small production deployment covering four verified production
Ed25519 implementations, state exactly what the accumulated evidence does and
does not establish, and outline the mechanization of this paper's theorems in
Lean as the natural next step.
\end{abstract}

\section{Introduction}\label{sec:intro}

Formal verification of deployed cryptographic code has matured from research
prototypes to substantial artifacts: verified-by-construction libraries such
as HACL*~\cite{hacl} and Fiat-Crypto~\cite{fiatcrypto} ship in mainstream
software, and post-hoc verification pipelines such as Aeneas~\cite{aeneas}
make it possible to state and prove theorems about existing production Rust
code. The corpus underlying this paper is of the latter kind: four production
Ed25519 implementations---upstream \texttt{curve25519-dalek}/%
\texttt{ed25519-dalek} and three deployed forks (Solana, RISC~Zero,
Betrusted)---each carry Lean~4~\cite{lean4} certificates, proven against that
fork's own extracted model, covering field arithmetic over $\Fp$, the
complete twisted Edwards laws~\cite{edwards,twisted}, scalar arithmetic
mod~$\ell$, encoding/decoding with constructive point decompression, and a
four-tier characterization of signature verification~\cite{eddsa,rfc8032}
whose strongest tier states: the extracted verifier accepts iff the
signature's $R$ component decompresses to a valid curve point equal to
$[k](-A) + [s]B$. Section~\ref{sec:corpus} states these theorems precisely.

The economics of \emph{consuming} such evidence are poor: re-checking one
fork's certificates takes ${\approx}30$ minutes of Lean kernel time and a
pinned toolchain. A wallet, a package manager, or an autonomous agent
choosing a cryptographic backend cannot pay this per decision---and need not:
a deterministic re-check yields a fact that can be attested once and
distributed. This is the classic transparency-log trade---Certificate
Transparency~\cite{ct1,ct2} for certificate issuance, Sigstore's
Rekor~\cite{sigstore} for signing events and supply-chain
attestations~\cite{intoto}, key transparency~\cite{coniks}, checksum
databases---applied to a payload with different trust semantics: evidence of
machine-checked mathematical truth, together with its exact assumption set.

\paragraph{Contributions.} The hash structure and proof algorithms are
RFC~9162 verbatim, and we claim no novelty for any individual component. The
contributions are:
\begin{enumerate}[itemsep=1pt]
\item \textbf{A precise trust model for attestation transparency over
  machine-checked proofs} (\S\ref{sec:model}), in which the log operator is
  trusted for \emph{observations} (``this is what the kernel printed'') but
  never for \emph{verdicts} (``these proofs are acceptable''), because
  consumers re-derive every verdict locally from the observed axiom cones
  carried in each attestation.
\item \textbf{Security proofs for the consumer-facing claims}
  (\S\ref{sec:security}): completeness and soundness of the RFC~9162
  inclusion verifier as used here (soundness as an explicit extractor that
  turns any accepting proof for a non-member leaf into a SHA-256 collision),
  the analogous consistency statement, safety of the consumer's pin-store
  state machine, and verdict integrity. The statements are elementary but,
  written out, they pin down exactly which assumption carries which claim.
\item \textbf{Boundary-exact axiom auditing} (\S\ref{sec:construction}):
  observed axiom cones are matched against per-theorem documented boundaries
  \emph{exactly, in both directions}---an unexpected axiom and a missing
  boundary axiom are both flagged.
\item \textbf{A self-referential (not circular) signing design and a deployed
  instance} (\S\ref{sec:selfref}, \S\ref{sec:deployment}): tree heads are
  signed by a binary built from the pinned source of exactly the Ed25519
  implementation attested in the log, with the operator's own Merkle
  self-check of that leaf embedded in every signature; and a small,
  reproducible production deployment over the four-fork corpus, including a
  measurement of proof portability across real forks.
\end{enumerate}

\paragraph{Non-claims.} The LTL does not mechanize cryptographic security
proofs---that bridge is being built by EasyCrypt and its
relatives~\cite{easycrypt}. It does not establish correctness of any binary,
of SHA-512, of wire-format parsers, of the signing path, or any side-channel
property; \S\ref{sec:deployment} enumerates the assumption set in full. It
bridges an adjacent, mostly empty gap: type-theory-certified artifacts have
no distribution infrastructure, and cryptographic transparency
infrastructure has never carried kernel-checked mathematics.\footnote{The
acronym LTL collides with linear temporal logic~\cite{pnueli}; the collision
is acknowledged.}

\section{Background: the proof corpus}\label{sec:corpus}

The corpus is a stack of theorems about extracted code, each stated through
a denotation from machine representation to mathematics. Field elements are
five 51-bit limbs denoting
$[\![(a_0,\dots,a_4)]\!] = \sum_i a_i 2^{51i} \bmod p$ with
$p = 2^{255}-19$, and every operation carries a two-clause
specification---the value is right \emph{and} the representation invariant
is preserved, e.g.
\[
\forall a\, b.\;\; \mathsf{bnd}\,a \Rightarrow \mathsf{bnd}\,b \Rightarrow
\exists c.\;\; \mathsf{mul}\,a\,b = \mathsf{ok}\,c \,\wedge\,
\mathsf{bnd}\,c \,\wedge\, [\![c]\!] = [\![a]\!]\cdot[\![b]\!].
\]
Point operations are proven to implement the complete twisted Edwards
addition law on $E : -x^2+y^2 = 1+d\,x^2y^2$ over $\Fp$,
\[
(x_1,y_1)+(x_2,y_2) \;=\;
\left(\frac{x_1y_2+x_2y_1}{1+d\,x_1x_2y_1y_2},\;
      \frac{y_1y_2+x_1x_2}{1-d\,x_1x_2y_1y_2}\right),
\]
including the completeness fact that makes it branch-free ($a=-1$ is a
square and $d$ a non-square in $\Fp$, so the denominators never
vanish~\cite{edwards}). At the apex, writing $\accept(A,m,R,s)$ for ``the
extracted verifier returns \textsf{ok}'', with $k$ the scalar produced by
the hash oracle $H(R,A,m)$ and \emph{no properties assumed of $H$}, the
byte-level tier states
\[
\accept(A,m,R,s) \;\Leftrightarrow\; \mathsf{compress}([s]B-[k]A) = R,
\]
and the strongest tier lifts byte equality to the group:
\[
\accept(A,m,R,s) \;\Leftrightarrow\; \mathsf{decompress}(R) = [k](-A)+[s]B,
\]
with decompression itself proven (exact byte parsing, the $(p+3)/8$-power
square root, sign-bit root selection). Each theorem's \emph{axiom cone}---the
set of axioms its proof ultimately depends on, as reported by Lean's
\texttt{\#print axioms}---is pinned exactly: the standard three axioms below
the apex, plus an enumerated oracle boundary at the apex tiers.
Appendix~\ref{app:tiers} states all four verification tiers;
Appendix~\ref{app:axioms} lists the allowed axiom sets.

\section{Related work}\label{sec:related}

Certificate Transparency~\cite{ct1,ct2} supplies the data structure and
proof algorithms, used here unchanged; the underlying history-tree technique
originates with Crosby and Wallach~\cite{crosby}. Dowling, G\"unther, Herath
and Stebila~\cite{dghs} give formal security definitions and proofs for the
CT primitives (logging schemes, inclusion, consistency); the analysis in
\S\ref{sec:security} is in the same spirit, specialized to this system's
verifier and stated so that each claim can later be mechanized in Lean
(\S\ref{sec:next}). Rekor within Sigstore~\cite{sigstore} is the closest
deployed system: a transparency log over signing events and supply-chain
attestations such as in-toto~\cite{intoto} link metadata; its payloads attest
\emph{process} (who signed, how an artifact was built), whereas LTL leaves
attest kernel-checked mathematical statements together with their assumption
sets, and the consumer re-derives verdicts rather than trusting labels. Key
transparency~\cite{coniks} and checksum databases share the pattern with
different payloads. Proof-carrying code~\cite{pcc} ships proofs to consumers
who check them; the LTL serves consumers who cannot run any checker,
replacing proof transport with attestation, inclusion, and signature---at
the cost of trusting the operator's kernel run, a cost the design minimizes
(\S\ref{sec:model}) but does not eliminate. Cheval, Moreira and Ryan
formally verify transparency protocols themselves~\cite{cheval}; our
direction is the complement (we log the verification), and \S\ref{sec:next}
proposes meeting in the middle. Verified Merkle tree implementations exist,
notably in EverCrypt~\cite{evercrypt}; \S\ref{sec:next} builds on that
precedent rather than claiming it.

\section{System and trust model}\label{sec:model}

\subsection{Roles}

The system has exactly two roles with deliberately asymmetric costs and
capabilities. The \emph{operator} (one per log) owns a Lean toolchain,
replays proof corpora, holds the log's signing key, and bears append-only
obligations. \emph{Consumers} (unbounded in number) hold the operator's
public key, receive small evidence files, and verify with roughly 25 lines
of standard-library code (Appendix~\ref{app:verifier}). Nothing a consumer
does requires a theorem prover.

\subsection{Adversary model}

We consider a probabilistic polynomial-time adversary $\mathcal{A}$ that
controls the network (may reorder, replay, drop, or forge messages to
consumers) and may \emph{be} the operator. A malicious operator may sign
arbitrary tree heads, construct arbitrary leaves, present different views to
different consumers, and label attestations arbitrarily. The single
capability we do \emph{not} model cryptographically is falsification of
kernel observations: an operator who reports an axiom cone that the Lean
kernel never printed is lying about a physical event on its own machine, and
no log structure can exclude this; \S\ref{sec:model:residual} isolates this
residual trust precisely. Standard assumptions: SHA-256 is collision
resistant; Ed25519 (as instantiated by the signing binary) is EUF-CMA
secure; the consumer obtained the operator's true public key (trust on first
use; \S\ref{sec:limitations}).

\subsection{Security goals}\label{sec:model:goals}

\begin{description}[itemsep=2pt]
\item[G1 (Membership).] If a consumer accepts a receipt for attestation $a$
  against a signed head, then $a$ is a leaf of the tree committed by that
  head---any other outcome exhibits a SHA-256 collision or an Ed25519
  forgery. (Theorem~\ref{thm:sound}, Proposition~\ref{prop:pin}.)
\item[G2 (Append-only with fork evidence).] A consumer's accepted view of
  the log only ever grows by extension; if the operator presents conflicting
  views to two consumers, the union of their pin stores contains publicly
  verifiable evidence of equivocation (two validly signed conflicting
  heads). (Theorem~\ref{thm:consistency}, Proposition~\ref{prop:pin}.)
\item[G3 (Verdict integrity).] The verdict a consumer derives for a
  certificate depends only on the observed axiom cone in the leaf and the
  consumer's \emph{own} copy of the allowed axiom sets; the operator's
  pass/fail labels have no influence. (Proposition~\ref{prop:verdict}.)
\end{description}

\subsection{The residual trust, isolated}\label{sec:model:residual}

Goals G1--G3 reduce the operator's trusted role to a single sentence:
\emph{``the reported \texttt{\#print axioms} output is what the kernel
printed for this commit.''} Everything else---membership, history,
verdicts---is either cryptographically enforced or locally re-derived. An
operator that labels a dirty cone ``clean'' gains nothing (G3); an
attestation that omits observed cones is treated as unverifiable; an
operator that rewrites history is caught with transferable evidence (G2).
An operator that fabricates observations can only be caught by independent
replay, which any party with a Lean toolchain can perform from the pinned
commit---the design makes such an audit cheap to \emph{target} (the claim
is exact: repository, commit, toolchain, expected cones) even though it is
expensive to \emph{run}.

\section{The log construction}\label{sec:construction}

\subsection{Leaves: replay attestations}\label{sec:leaves}

A leaf is the canonical JSON serialization of an attestation recording: the
subject repository URL and git commit (which cryptographically pins the
entire source tree); the toolchain versions; the resource-control regime
under which the replay ran; and, per certificate, its name, replay status,
and the \emph{observed axiom cone}---the exact output of Lean's
\texttt{\#print axioms} for that theorem. For the corpus of
\S\ref{sec:corpus} each attestation carries 16 certificates.
Appendix~\ref{app:leaf} gives the leaf schema.

\subsection{Boundary-exact auditing}\label{sec:auditing}

Every certificate $c$ has a documented allowed axiom set $\allowed(c)$.
Foundational certificates must carry exactly Lean's three standard axioms
(\texttt{propext}, \texttt{Classical.choice}, \texttt{Quot.sound}); the four
signature-tier certificates additionally carry a per-fork, explicitly
enumerated boundary (an opaque SHA-512 oracle and opaque wire-format
types---e.g., eleven axioms in total for the upstream fork). Writing
$\obs(c)$ for the observed cone recorded in the leaf, define
\[
\clean(c) \;:\Longleftrightarrow\; \obs(c) = \allowed(c)
\quad\text{(equality of finite sets).}
\]
Deviation in \emph{either} direction---an unexpected axiom, or a missing
boundary axiom---falsifies $\clean$. The second direction matters: a missing
boundary axiom means the theorem proved is not the theorem documented (e.g.,
a hash oracle discharged by a placeholder rather than kept opaque). Each
source repository enforces the same discipline in its own check scripts; the
log mirrors those sets, and consumers carry their own copies.

\subsection{Tree, heads, receipts}\label{sec:tree}

Let $\hash$ be SHA-256. Define, for a byte string $d$ and 256-bit values
$x,y$:
\[
\hleaf(d) = \hash(\texttt{0x00} \,\|\, d), \qquad
\hnode(x,y) = \hash(\texttt{0x01} \,\|\, x \,\|\, y).
\]
For a leaf list $D = [d_0,\dots,d_{n-1}]$ the RFC~9162 tree head is
\[
\begin{aligned}
\MTH([\,]) &= \hash(\varepsilon), \qquad
\MTH([d]) = \hleaf(d),\\
\MTH(D) &= \hnode\bigl(\MTH(D[0{:}k]),\, \MTH(D[k{:}n])\bigr),
\end{aligned}
\]
where $k$ is the largest power of two strictly less than $n$. The
\emph{inclusion path} for index $m$ is
\[
\Path(m, [d]) = [\,], \qquad
\Path(m, D) =
\begin{cases}
\Path(m, D[0{:}k]) \,\|\, [\MTH(D[k{:}n])] & m < k,\\
\Path(m-k, D[k{:}n]) \,\|\, [\MTH(D[0{:}k])] & m \ge k,
\end{cases}
\]
and the consumer's root-reconstruction function $\Root(v, m, n, P)$ is the
evident dual (Appendix~\ref{app:verifier}): fold the path back up, choosing
left/right by comparing $m$ with $k$ at each level. Consistency proofs
between sizes $n_0 \le n_1$ are likewise RFC~9162 verbatim.

The operator signs tree heads $(n, \MTH(D), t)$ with Ed25519; a
\emph{receipt} for a leaf is its index, its sibling path, and a signed head.

\subsection{The consumer pin store}\label{sec:pinstore}

Each consumer maintains a local pin $(n_{\mathrm{pin}}, r_{\mathrm{pin}})$,
updated by the following state machine on receiving a validly signed head
$(n', r')$:
\begin{itemize}[itemsep=1pt]
\item $n' = n_{\mathrm{pin}}$: accept iff $r' = r_{\mathrm{pin}}$; a
  mismatch is reported as \emph{equivocation}, the pair of signed heads is
  retained as evidence, and the state is poisoned (unrecoverable).
\item $n' > n_{\mathrm{pin}}$: accept iff a consistency proof from
  $(n_{\mathrm{pin}}, r_{\mathrm{pin}})$ to $(n', r')$ verifies; then update
  the pin.
\item $n' < n_{\mathrm{pin}}$: reject (rollback).
\end{itemize}
A freshness policy bounds head age. The full log is also published as a git
repository (one file per leaf, plus every head ever signed), so any cloner
can recompute every prefix root from the public leaves and audit the
complete head history without consistency proofs---a low-infrastructure
witness mechanism~\cite{ct2}; a standalone ${\approx}150$-line
standard-library verifier ships in the mirror.

\section{Security analysis}\label{sec:security}

This section proves the claims G1--G3 of \S\ref{sec:model:goals}. The
statements are not deep---inclusion and consistency security for RFC
6962/9162 trees is folklore, and was treated formally by Dowling et
al.~\cite{dghs}---but writing them out for \emph{this} system serves two
purposes: it pins down exactly which assumption carries which consumer-facing
claim, and it produces statements in a form ready for mechanization in Lean
(\S\ref{sec:next}), where they will re-enter the log as leaves.

We write $\Root(v, m, n, P)$ for the consumer's root reconstruction: it is
defined by $\Root(v, m, 1, [\,]) = v$ and, for $n > 1$ with $k$ the largest
power of two below $n$ and $P = P' \| [s]$,
\[
\Root(v, m, n, P) =
\begin{cases}
\hnode\bigl(\Root(v, m, k, P'),\, s\bigr) & m < k,\\
\hnode\bigl(s,\, \Root(v, m-k, n-k, P')\bigr) & m \ge k,
\end{cases}
\]
rejecting on any length mismatch. The consumer accepts a receipt
$(d, m, P)$ against a head $(n, r)$ iff $m < n$ and
$\Root(\hleaf(d), m, n, P) = r$.

\begin{lemma}[Domain separation]\label{lem:domsep}
No leaf preimage equals a node preimage as a byte string: for all $d, x, y$,
$\texttt{0x00} \| d \neq \texttt{0x01} \| x \| y$.
\end{lemma}
\begin{proof}
The first byte differs.
\end{proof}

Lemma~\ref{lem:domsep} forecloses the classic cross-type confusion in which
an adversary presents an interior node's 64-byte child concatenation as a
``leaf'' (or vice versa) to move a value between levels of the
tree~\cite{crosby,dghs}; in the proofs below it guarantees that when two
preimages of the same hash value are compared, a leaf/node type mismatch
already constitutes inequality of strings, hence a collision.

\begin{theorem}[Inclusion completeness]\label{thm:complete}
For every non-empty leaf list $D$ with $|D| = n$ and every $m < n$,
\[
\Root\bigl(\hleaf(D[m]),\, m,\, n,\, \Path(m, D)\bigr) = \MTH(D).
\]
\end{theorem}
\begin{proof}
Structural induction on $n$. For $n = 1$: $\Path(0, [d]) = [\,]$ and
$\Root(\hleaf(d), 0, 1, [\,]) = \hleaf(d) = \MTH([d])$. For $n > 1$ with
split point $k$, suppose $m < k$ (the case $m \ge k$ is symmetric). Then
$\Path(m, D) = \Path(m, D[0{:}k]) \,\|\, [\MTH(D[k{:}n])]$, and by the
induction hypothesis
\[
\Root\bigl(\hleaf(D[m]),\, m,\, k,\, \Path(m, D[0{:}k])\bigr)
  = \MTH(D[0{:}k]),
\]
so the outer step yields
$\hnode(\MTH(D[0{:}k]), \MTH(D[k{:}n])) = \MTH(D)$.
\end{proof}

\begin{theorem}[Inclusion soundness: position binding]\label{thm:sound}
There is an explicit algorithm $\mathcal{E}$ (running in time $O(n)$ hash
evaluations) such that: whenever an adversary outputs a leaf list $D$ with
$|D| = n$, an index $m < n$, a leaf $d \neq D[m]$, and a path $P$ with
\[
\Root(\hleaf(d), m, n, P) = \MTH(D),
\]
$\mathcal{E}(D, m, d, P)$ outputs a SHA-256 collision.
\end{theorem}
\begin{proof}
$\mathcal{E}$ recomputes the honest tree for $D$ and walks the two
derivations of the common root value in parallel, top-down; we argue by
induction on $n$ that a collision is found.

$n = 1$: the acceptance condition forces $P = [\,]$ and
$\hash(\texttt{0x00} \| d) = \hleaf(d) = \MTH(D) = \hash(\texttt{0x00} \|
D[0])$. Since $d \neq D[0]$, the two preimages are distinct strings with
equal hash: a collision, output directly.

$n > 1$: let $k$ be the split point and write $P = P' \| [s]$ (acceptance
forces $P$ non-empty). Suppose $m < k$ (the case $m \ge k$ is symmetric).
Then acceptance gives
\[
\hash\bigl(\texttt{0x01} \| u \| s\bigr) = \MTH(D)
 = \hash\bigl(\texttt{0x01} \| u^\ast \| s^\ast\bigr),
\quad\text{where } u = \Root(\hleaf(d), m, k, P'),
\]
$u^\ast = \MTH(D[0{:}k])$ and $s^\ast = \MTH(D[k{:}n])$. If
$(u, s) \neq (u^\ast, s^\ast)$, the two preimages are distinct equal-length
strings with equal hash: a collision, output directly. Otherwise $u =
u^\ast$, i.e.\ $\Root(\hleaf(d), m, k, P') = \MTH(D[0{:}k])$ with $m < k$
and $d \neq D[0{:}k][m] = D[m]$: exactly the premise for leaf list
$D[0{:}k]$ of size $k < n$, so the induction hypothesis applies. The
recursion terminates at the leaf level, where Lemma~\ref{lem:domsep}
additionally guarantees that no spurious equality between leaf and node
preimages can mask the collision.
\end{proof}

\begin{remark}
Theorem~\ref{thm:sound} is unconditional in the following sense: it does not
say forgeries are infeasible, it \emph{constructs} a SHA-256 collision from
any successful forgery. Infeasibility of forgery is then exactly the
assumption ``SHA-256 is collision resistant''---no more, no less. This is
the form in which the statement will be mechanized (\S\ref{sec:next}): the
extractor is a total function, and collision resistance enters only as a
documented boundary axiom, audited by the log exactly like the SHA-512
oracle in the Ed25519 tiers.
\end{remark}

\begin{theorem}[Consistency soundness]\label{thm:consistency}
There is an explicit algorithm $\mathcal{E}'$ such that: whenever an
adversary outputs leaf lists $D_0, D_1$ with $|D_0| = n_0 \le n_1 = |D_1|$
such that $D_0 \neq D_1[0{:}n_0]$, together with an RFC~9162 consistency
proof $C$ that the consumer's verifier accepts for
$\bigl(n_0, \MTH(D_0)\bigr) \to \bigl(n_1, \MTH(D_1)\bigr)$,
$\mathcal{E}'(D_0, D_1, C)$ outputs a SHA-256 collision.
\end{theorem}
\begin{proof}[Proof sketch]
The consistency verifier reconstructs \emph{two} roots from $C$: the size-%
$n_0$ root, from the nodes of the size-$n_1$ tree that tile the range
$[0, n_0)$, and the size-$n_1$ root, from those same nodes plus the
remaining siblings. Acceptance equates both reconstructions with
$\MTH(D_0)$ and $\MTH(D_1)$ respectively. As in Theorem~\ref{thm:sound},
$\mathcal{E}'$ compares each reconstruction transcript against the honest
tree of the corresponding leaf list, top-down: at every step, either the two
preimages of a common hash value differ (a collision, output directly) or
the transcript values agree with the honest tree at that node. If no
collision is found anywhere, all shared range nodes agree with \emph{both}
honest trees, which forces $\MTH(D_0[i{:}j]) = \MTH(D_1[i{:}j])$ on the
canonical decomposition of $[0, n_0)$, and hence---descending leaf-by-leaf,
again either finding a collision or agreeing---$D_0 = D_1[0{:}n_0]$,
contradicting the premise. A fully explicit treatment of this argument for
RFC~6962 trees appears in Dowling et al.~\cite{dghs}; the mechanization
planned in \S\ref{sec:next} will make it exact for the verifier as deployed.
\end{proof}

\begin{proposition}[Pin-store safety]\label{prop:pin}
Assume Ed25519 EUF-CMA security for the head-signing key and consider the
state machine of \S\ref{sec:pinstore}. Then, except with the probability of
a signature forgery or a SHA-256 collision:
\begin{enumerate}[itemsep=1pt]
\item (\emph{Monotonicity}) If a consumer's pin evolves through states
$(n_1, r_1), \dots, (n_t, r_t)$, then $n_1 \le \dots \le n_t$, and for any
leaf lists $D_i$ the operator can exhibit with $\MTH(D_i) = r_i$,
$|D_i| = n_i$, each $D_i$ is a prefix of $D_{i+1}$.
\item (\emph{Fork evidence}) If two consumers with the same pinned key ever
hold accepted heads $(n, r)$ and $(n, r')$ with $r \neq r'$, the pair of
signed heads is transferable, publicly verifiable evidence that the key
holder signed two conflicting views.
\end{enumerate}
\end{proposition}
\begin{proof}
(1) The machine accepts a larger size only with a verified consistency
proof, so by Theorem~\ref{thm:consistency} any exhibited leaf lists are
prefix-ordered unless a collision is found; rollback is rejected
syntactically. (2) Both heads carry valid signatures under the pinned key;
under EUF-CMA, both were produced by the key holder, and $r \neq r'$ at
equal size is precisely a split view. The evidence is transferable because
verification requires only the public key.
\end{proof}

\begin{proposition}[Verdict integrity]\label{prop:verdict}
Fix a consumer with local allowed-set table $\allowed(\cdot)$. For every
attestation leaf $a$ and certificate $c$ in it, the consumer's verdict is
the predicate $\clean(c) \Leftrightarrow \obs_a(c) = \allowed(c)$, a
function of the leaf's observed cones and the consumer's table only. In
particular, the operator's embedded pass/fail labels are not an input, and
for fixed leaf content the verdict is independent of anything the operator
asserts.
\end{proposition}
\begin{proof}
By construction of the consumer tooling: the verdict function takes
$(\obs_a, \allowed)$ and ignores the label fields; an attestation lacking
observed cones is mapped to \textsf{unverifiable}, not to a verdict.
\end{proof}

\paragraph{What is \emph{not} proven.} Propositions~\ref{prop:pin} and
\ref{prop:verdict} together with Theorems~\ref{thm:complete}--%
\ref{thm:consistency} discharge G1--G3. They do not---and cannot---exclude
an operator who fabricates observations (\S\ref{sec:model:residual}), and
they say nothing about the mathematical content of the attested corpus,
whose guarantees rest on the Lean kernel and the assumption set enumerated
in \S\ref{sec:deployment}. The division of labor is deliberate: the
cryptographic layer makes the operator's claims \emph{exact, immutable, and
attributable}; the deductive layer is what makes them \emph{true}.

\section{The self-referential signing loop}\label{sec:selfref}

Tree heads are Ed25519 signatures, and this creates an opportunity for
coherence: the log contains correctness certificates for an Ed25519
implementation. The LTL's heads are therefore signed by a binary built from
the pinned source tree of exactly the implementation attested in the log
(serial backend pinned, matching the verified extraction), and---before
signing---the operator runs the same Merkle inclusion verification a
consumer runs, on the newest leaf attesting the signing implementation,
against the tree about to be signed. The verdict is embedded in the
signature block:
\begin{quote}\ttfamily\small
signing\_backend: verified-dalek-serial\\
signing\_library\_source\_commit: aa0f6ab...\\
signing\_library\_leaf\_index: 8\\
signing\_library\_certificates\_proven: 16/16\\
self\_inclusion: verified
\end{quote}
The signature vouches for the tree; the tree vouches for the code that
produced the signature; and the two vouchings are different proof modalities
(cryptographic and deductive), so the loop is self-referential without being
circular. The self-check always references the \emph{newest} leaf
attesting the signing library: after the re-attestation of
\S\ref{sec:deployment}, the referenced index advanced from~4 to~8
automatically, the loop re-anchoring itself to the fresh attestation
without operator intervention.

\paragraph{The honest extent of this claim.} The Lean certificates cover
the \emph{verification} path of the library (the theorems' subject is the
extraction image of that path); the \emph{signing} path is not covered by
any certificate and is declared trusted base. The design merely ensures the
trusted signing code is the attested artifact rather than an unrelated third
implementation, and that consumers can check as much. Signature verification
on consumer machines can optionally run through the same certified-source
binary, with the backend that actually ran recorded in every result and a
fail-closed policy flag available. First-append bootstrapping is handled
honestly: heads signed before the signing library's attestation enters the
log record \texttt{self\_inclusion: library\_not\_in\_log}.

\section{Deployment and evidence}\label{sec:deployment}

The LTL is deployed\footnote{Service: \url{https://ltl.zkdefi.org}
(read-only HTTP API and documentation). Mirror:
\url{https://github.com/saymrwulf/lean-transparency-log}. Operator and
consumer tooling: \url{https://github.com/saymrwulf/proof-aware-crypto-tooling-agent}.
The underlying proof corpora are in the
\texttt{saymrwulf/*-ed25519-verified} repositories; every claim in this
paper is re-checkable from these artifacts.} with twelve leaves,
produced by three full replay runs (one attestation per fork per run;
58--64 Lean files and ${\approx}1{,}800$\,s per fork, under hard memory
caps and core pinning). Each successful run reports 16/16 certificates
proven with boundary-exact cones, pinned to exact commits. The three runs
correspond to three states of the world, and their coexistence in one
append-only ledger is the point of the system:

\begin{itemize}[itemsep=2pt]
\item \textbf{Leaves 0--3 (failed run).} The first run's audit step failed
  on two defects in the operator tooling (a path issue and a parser that
  mishandled Lean's line-wrapped axiom lists for the eleven-axiom cones).
  The operator signed attestations \emph{recording the failure} rather
  than suppressing the run. Both defects were fail-closed: valid proofs
  were rejected, invalid ones never accepted.
\item \textbf{Leaves 4--7 (clean run).} After the fix, all four forks
  attested 16/16 boundary-exact at that day's commits.
\item \textbf{Leaves 8--11 (clean run, new commits).} A subsequent
  documentation-only rewrite of the subject repositories' histories
  changed their commit hashes. Because a leaf pins an exact commit
  (\S\ref{sec:leaves}), the operator re-ran the full corpus and appended
  fresh attestations at the new commits rather than editing leaves 4--7.
  The proof \emph{files} are unchanged across the rewrite---independently
  checkable by diffing the two commit trees---and the replay confirms it.
\end{itemize}

\noindent This last event is a live exercise of the append-only
discipline (G2): a change that a naive operator would have hidden by
overwriting is instead absorbed by \emph{addition}, leaving a permanent,
publicly verifiable record that the subject histories changed and that
the mathematics survived the change. The ledger---four failure leaves and
eight success leaves across two commit generations---is a feature of the
trust model, not clutter to be pruned.

\paragraph{What a verified receipt establishes.} Under the assumptions
enumerated below, a consumer who verifies a receipt knows: \emph{the
operator whose key I pinned attests that the Lean certificates of repository
$X$ at commit $Y$ re-check, with per-certificate observed axiom cones as
included---and this statement is part of the log presented to every other
consumer.} Combined with local verdict re-derivation
(Proposition~\ref{prop:verdict}), this yields source-level assurance for the
pinned commit. It deliberately does \emph{not} establish: correctness of any
binary (consumers build from the pinned source; compilers are trusted base),
correctness of SHA-512 (an opaque oracle in the theorems), correctness of
the wire-format parsers (their outcomes are hypotheses of the signature
tiers), signing-side correctness, or side-channel properties.

\paragraph{The assumption set, in full.} The Lean kernel and its three
axioms plus mathlib; faithfulness of the Charon/Aeneas
extraction~\cite{aeneas}; each fork's documented oracle boundary; operator
key custody and trust-on-first-use key distribution (mitigated by publishing
the key in two independent locations); collision resistance of SHA-256 for
the log (Theorems~\ref{thm:sound}, \ref{thm:consistency}); unforgeability
of Ed25519 for the heads (Proposition~\ref{prop:pin}); and the consumer's
own ${\approx}25$-line verifier (Appendix~\ref{app:verifier}).

\paragraph{An observational by-product: proof portability.} Because the
four corpora prove the same theorems against four independent extractions,
the diff between proof files measures how portable proofs are across real
forks. Pure-mathematics files (e.g., a carry-telescope lemma file) are
byte-identical across all four; extraction-facing proof scripts diverge
sharply where the forks' code or the extractor's naming differs (e.g., 215
changed lines for the byte-parser proofs on the two forks whose extraction
produces a closure-based loader; 121 lines for the signature-glue proofs on
the same-crate fork; 27 lines---all annotation---between the two
structurally closest forks, documenting one fork's \texttt{black\_box}
optimization barrier). Per-target verification, in other words, is doing
measurable work exactly where the targets actually differ.

\section{Limitations}\label{sec:limitations}

The deployment is small (one operator, twelve leaves, four subject
repositories) and the operator is a single party; split-view defense
currently rests on consumer-side pinning (Proposition~\ref{prop:pin}) plus
the public git mirror rather than an independent witness network. Key
distribution is trust-on-first-use. The signing path of the dogfood binary
is unverified (declared, not proven). The residual trust of
\S\ref{sec:model:residual}---honesty of the operator's kernel
observations---is mitigated only by targeted independent replay. The corpus
itself stops at source-level assurance: reproducible builds and side-channel
evidence remain open, and ML-DSA slots in the head format are deliberately
recorded as unavailable rather than backed by an unverified implementation.

\section{Next step: verifying the accumulator itself}\label{sec:next}

The natural continuation applies the corpus's own discipline to the log's
cryptographic half. Theorems~\ref{thm:complete}--\ref{thm:consistency} and
Proposition~\ref{prop:pin} were stated so that their mechanization is a
translation task, not a research task: (i) inclusion completeness
(Theorem~\ref{thm:complete}) is assumption-free; (ii) inclusion soundness
becomes the explicit extractor of Theorem~\ref{thm:sound}, with SHA-256
collision resistance a documented boundary axiom audited exactly like the
SHA-512 oracle in the Ed25519 tiers; (iii) likewise consistency
(Theorem~\ref{thm:consistency}); (iv) domain separation
(Lemma~\ref{lem:domsep}) is a one-line lemma; and (v) total correctness of
the consumer's pin-store state machine (Proposition~\ref{prop:pin}).
Verified Merkle implementations in F*~\cite{evercrypt} and machine-checked
transparency-protocol analyses~\cite{cheval} show these proofs are well
within reach; the LTL-specific closure is where the certificates go:
\emph{into the log they defend, checked by the certified checker they
specify}, alongside a consumer policy flag requiring the certified verifier.
At that point both proving traditions in the composition run on certified
code, and the remaining trusted base is two hash assumptions, a compiler, an
extraction pipeline, and one key.

\section*{Acknowledgments}

The author designed the system, directed the verification effort, and is
solely accountable for every claim in this paper. Claude (Anthropic) was
used as an assistant in developing the proof corpora, tooling, and text; all
proofs, measurements, and claims have been reviewed by the author and are
independently re-checkable from the public artifacts and the referenced
check scripts.
% \authortodo{The sentence above must be true before you submit it.
% Review every proof in Section 6 line by line and re-run every number in
% Section 8 yourself.}

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\end{thebibliography}

\appendix

\section{Leaf schema}\label{app:leaf}

Each leaf is the canonical JSON serialization (sorted keys, no
insignificant whitespace, UTF-8) of an attestation. Below is leaf~8 of
the deployed log---the re-attestation of the upstream fork---with the
16-certificate array elided to its first (foundational) and last (apex)
entries; all other fields are verbatim.
\begin{quote}\ttfamily\scriptsize
\{ "type": "pacta.attestation", "schema\_version": 1,\\
\hspace*{0.6em}"attestation": \{\\
\hspace*{1.2em}"provider": "local-pacta-provider",\\
\hspace*{1.2em}"issued\_at": "2026-07-07T...Z",\\
\hspace*{1.2em}"subject": \{ "component": "dalek-ed25519-verified",\\
\hspace*{2.4em}"repo\_commit": "33fb8bb2311c70ead2e83c0...",\\
\hspace*{2.4em}"repo\_url": ..., "verified\_backend": "serial" \},\\
\hspace*{1.2em}"environment": \{ "lean\_version": "4.x.y",\\
\hspace*{2.4em}"lake\_version": ..., "env\_script": ...,\\
\hspace*{2.4em}"lean\_project\_dir": ... \},\\
\hspace*{1.2em}"machine\_protection": \{ "lean\_guard": ...,\\
\hspace*{2.4em}"note": "memory cap, core pinning, single-flight" \},\\
\hspace*{1.2em}"replay": \{ "checked\_files": 64, "failed\_files": [],\\
\hspace*{2.4em}"check\_ok": true, "axiom\_ok": true \},\\
\hspace*{1.2em}"certificates": [\\
\hspace*{2.4em}\{ "name": "CurveFieldProofs.fieldImplementation",\\
\hspace*{3.0em}"status": "proven", "axiom\_status": "clean",\\
\hspace*{3.0em}"observed\_axioms": ["propext",\\
\hspace*{3.6em}"Classical.choice","Quot.sound"],\\
\hspace*{3.0em}"expected\_axioms": [...] \},\\
\hspace*{2.4em}... \; \emph{(14 more)} \; ...\\
\hspace*{2.4em}\{ "name":\\
\hspace*{3.0em}"CurveFieldProofs.verify\_accepts\_iff\_decompress",\\
\hspace*{3.0em}"status": "proven", "axiom\_status": "clean",\\
\hspace*{3.0em}"observed\_axioms": ["propext","Classical.choice",\\
\hspace*{3.6em}"Quot.sound","ed25519.Signature","sha2.Sha512",\\
\hspace*{3.6em}"verifying.sha512\_new","verifying.sha512\_update",\\
\hspace*{3.6em}"verifying.sha512\_finalize\_bytes",\\
\hspace*{3.6em}"ed25519.Signature.to\_bytes",\\
\hspace*{3.6em}"signature.error.Error",\\
\hspace*{3.6em}"signature.error.Error.new"] \} ],\\
\hspace*{1.2em}"signature": \{ "scheme": "ed25519", ... \} \} \}
\end{quote}
The \texttt{observed\_axioms} field is the exact output of
\texttt{\#print axioms} for that theorem. Operator labels
(\texttt{replay.check\_ok}, per-certificate \texttt{status} and
\texttt{axiom\_status}) are recorded for the audit trail but are not
inputs to any consumer verdict (Proposition~\ref{prop:verdict}); the
consumer's verdict is $\obs = \allowed$ computed against its own table.

\section{The consumer verifier}\label{app:verifier}

The consumer-side inclusion check, in full (Python, standard library only);
this is the recursive form proved in \S\ref{sec:security} and is equivalent
to the iterative algorithm of RFC~9162 \S2.1.3.2.

\begin{quote}\ttfamily\small
import hashlib\\[2pt]
def H(b): return hashlib.sha256(b).digest()\\
def h\_leaf(d): return H(b'\textbackslash x00' + d)\\
def h\_node(x, y): return H(b'\textbackslash x01' + x + y)\\[2pt]
def largest\_pow2\_below(n):\\
\hspace*{1em}k = 1\\
\hspace*{1em}while 2 * k < n: k *= 2\\
\hspace*{1em}return k\\[2pt]
def root(v, m, n, path):\\
\hspace*{1em}if n == 1:\\
\hspace*{2em}if path: raise ValueError\\
\hspace*{2em}return v\\
\hspace*{1em}if not path: raise ValueError\\
\hspace*{1em}*rest, s = path\\
\hspace*{1em}k = largest\_pow2\_below(n)\\
\hspace*{1em}if m < k:\\
\hspace*{2em}return h\_node(root(v, m, k, rest), s)\\
\hspace*{1em}return h\_node(s, root(v, m - k, n - k, rest))\\[2pt]
def verify\_inclusion(leaf, m, n, path, head\_root):\\
\hspace*{1em}return m < n and root(h\_leaf(leaf), m, n, path) == head\_root
\end{quote}
Signature verification of the head (Ed25519) and the pin-store logic of
\S\ref{sec:pinstore} complete the consumer; the deployed
${\approx}150$-line standalone verifier in the mirror additionally checks
consistency proofs and recomputes prefix roots from the public leaves.

\section{Allowed axiom sets}\label{app:axioms}

Foundational certificates (12 of 16) must carry exactly Lean's three
standard axioms:
\begin{quote}\ttfamily\small
propext \quad Classical.choice \quad Quot.sound
\end{quote}
The four signature-tier certificates additionally carry a per-fork
enumerated boundary: an opaque SHA-512 oracle and opaque wire-format
types (the signature type, its byte accessors, and the error type). The
boundary is not identical across forks---it reflects each fork's actual
extracted surface---and auditing is exact against the fork's own set. The
three distinct boundaries in the deployed corpus, verbatim from the
repositories' check scripts, are as follows (the three standard axioms
above, plus):

\smallskip
\noindent\textbf{Upstream \texttt{curve25519-dalek}} (11 axioms total;
this fork exposes SHA-512 as three streaming operations):
\begin{quote}\ttfamily\scriptsize
ed25519.Signature \quad sha2.Sha512\\
verifying.sha512\_new \quad verifying.sha512\_update\\
verifying.sha512\_finalize\_bytes\\
ed25519.Signature.to\_bytes\\
signature.error.Error \quad signature.error.Error.new
\end{quote}

\noindent\textbf{RISC~Zero and Betrusted forks} (8 axioms total;
identical to each other---SHA-512 is a single \texttt{hash3} oracle):
\begin{quote}\ttfamily\scriptsize
ed25519.Signature \quad verifying.sha512\_hash3\\
ed25519.Signature.to\_bytes\\
signature.error.Error \quad signature.error.Error.new
\end{quote}

\noindent\textbf{Solana (anza) fork} (7 axioms total; its own
\texttt{ed\_sigs} namespace, and \texttt{R}/\texttt{s} byte accessors
rather than a whole-signature encoder):
\begin{quote}\ttfamily\scriptsize
ed25519.Signature \quad ed\_sigs.sha512\_hash3\\
ed25519.Signature.r\_bytes \quad ed25519.Signature.s\_bytes
\end{quote}

A consumer's local table (\S\ref{sec:auditing}) contains exactly these
sets. That a boundary differs by fork is itself audited: an
upstream-shaped cone appearing under the anza label, or vice versa, fails
$\clean$ in the ``unexpected axiom'' direction.

\section{The four verification tiers}\label{app:tiers}

The signature apex is a ladder of four separately certified theorems, not
a single statement; each is proven for the extracted verifier and is
\emph{parametric} in the wire-format outcomes (the certificate assumes
the signature parses to an internal representation and that the relevant
compressed points re-encode; these parser outcomes are the hypotheses,
not proven facts---their byte-level specifications are the R5 frontier).
Writing $\accept(A,m,R,s)$ for ``the extracted verifier returns
\textsf{ok}'', $k$ for the scalar produced by the opaque hash oracle
$H(R,A,m)$, and $r_1$ for the canonical encoding of the signature's
declared $R$:
\begin{enumerate}[itemsep=3pt,leftmargin=1.4em]
\item \textbf{Byte apex} (\texttt{verify\_accepts\_iff}): under the parser
  hypotheses, $\accept(A,m,R,s) \Leftrightarrow
  \mathsf{compress}([s]B-[k]A) = r_1$---acceptance is byte-equality of the
  recomputed point's encoding with the signature's $R$ bytes.
\item \textbf{Half-lift} (\texttt{verify\_accepts\_iff\_point}): those
  recomputed bytes \emph{are} the canonical encoding of the group element
  $[k](-A)+[s]B$; encoding is shown canonical.
\item \textbf{Point equation} (\texttt{verify\_accepts\_iff\_point\_eq}):
  any valid curve point whose canonical encoding is $R$ \emph{equals}
  $[k](-A)+[s]B$; canonical encodings are injective on the curve
  (non-squareness of $d$).
\item \textbf{Full lift} (\texttt{verify\_accepts\_iff\_decompress}):
  $\accept(A,m,R,s) \Leftrightarrow \mathsf{decompress}(R) = [k](-A)+[s]B$,
  with \texttt{decompress} proven constructively---exact byte parsing, the
  $(p+3)/8$-power square root, and sign-bit root selection.
\end{enumerate}
Tiers~1--2 are byte-level and encoding-level; Tiers~3--4 lift the
statement into the group. All four cones are audited against the same
per-fork boundary of Appendix~\ref{app:axioms}.

\end{document}
