A Degree of Proof is a numbered, time-stamped record that a specific capability was weighed against specific evidence by independent stewards. If a candidate hands you one, here is how to read it, where to verify it, and what every field records.
What a Degree of Proof is
A certificate asserts that the holder sat a course set by an issuer. A Degree of Proof asserts that a capability was demonstrated against evidence, by people who do not control the curriculum. The authority moves from the issuer to the steward. Raw evidence stays with the steward panel; the public surface exposes the audit hash, the claim id, the capability, and the decision, not the artifacts themselves.
A Degree is revocable. Any party with standing may contest one; a fresh steward panel reviews the challenge; if the contest is sustained, the credential is revoked and the audit log records the change, the date, and the reason. Revocation remains part of the public accountability record.
The audit log makes the credential independently verifiable and tamper-evident on the public ledger while protected evidence stays private. Unsuccessful claims do not produce a credential; the decision is recorded in the audit log with date and reason so the same claim cannot be silently re-filed.
Tracks, in plain English
A Degree is named for the registry gate it cleared. "PoT-" comes from Trades — the conventional-evidence gate. "PoO-" comes from Oddities — the signal-led gate for capabilities with no fixed curriculum. The prefix tells you the shape of evidence the panel weighed, before you ever resolve the record.
The PoT-/PoO- prefix
Five digits follow the prefix. A PoT- serial belongs to a Trades claim — work orders, employer statements, recorded test runs. A PoO- serial belongs to an Oddities claim — documented work, affidavits, recorded practice with no fixed credential behind it. Read either letter the same way: it names the gate, not the holder.
Trades — PoT-
Conventional evidence. The panel weighs a named capability against work orders, employer statements, or recorded test runs. The claim packet carries the artifacts; the steward panel reads the artifacts on their own signal; the resulting Degree carries a PoT- serial. The worked example on this page — Maya Hernández's PoT-00012 — lives in this gate.
Oddities — PoO-
Signal-led evidence. The panel weighs a named capability against practice that has no fixed curriculum — documented work-orders, affidavits, recorded runs. The cap doesn't have to look conventional; the gate keeps the commitment to the same review bar. Locksmiths with no North-American certification, artisan trades with no formal apprenticeship, and other cross-border practitioners live here.
Every field, in plain English
Each Degree renders the same six fields to anyone who resolves the public ID. Below is what each field is, where it comes from, and which evidence-privacy tier it sits in. The public surface exposes the minimum needed to substantiate and audit the decision — audit hash, claim id, capability, decision info, and (when applicable) a redacted record or a stewardship-curated one-line. Raw evidence is held by the steward panel; it is never linked from the public surface.
Samples — illustrative anatomy
Every card below is a structural example. It is not a real Degree of Proof on the ledger.
A Degree of Proof is named PoT-00042 or PoO-00012 — "PoT-" tracks the Trades track, "PoO-" tracks the Oddities track, followed by the serial number. Five digits. Anyone holding the ID can resolve the credential independently.
The legal name recorded at issuance sits in the holder field. A holder profile at /u/[handle] collects every Degree the named holder carries, cross-track.
One sentence, at least twenty characters, naming the capability and what it does. The skill statement was on the original claim — it is the same wording the stewards approved, not a paraphrase.
Trades (PoT-) is the conventional-evidence gate: work orders, employer statements, recorded test runs. Oddities (PoO-) is the signal-led gate for capabilities with no fixed curriculum. The track name tells you what kind of evidence the panel weighed.
A UTC timestamp stamped at minting. Note that issued is the minting date, not the date the underlying capability was practised — the credential registers the audit, not the apprenticeship.
Active means the credential is in good standing. Revoked means the credential has been struck — the audit log records the date and reason. There is no "pending": the credential only enters the public ledger after minting.
Status pills
The verify surface only ever resolves to two states — Active and Revoked — because a credential only enters the ledger after minting. Showing a third pill here to teach the visual register the panel uses internally, before a credential is on the public books.
Samples — illustrative anatomy
Every card below is a structural example. It is not a real Degree of Proof on the ledger.
SAMPLE — NOT A REAL CREDENTIAL · Demonstration record (forEmployers.registry.sampleTag)
This surface is a sample demonstration record used to illustrate what a real ledger entry looks like. The live ledger does not resolve this id — it is part of a closed teaching set the holder dashboard and printed PDF both flag.
/verify/PoT-00012
Sample · No record on the Proofworks public registry
Demonstration card · Does not resolve against the live ledger
In good standing.
Reviewers read the full claim — the skill statement, the artifacts (work orders, employer documents, photos, affidavits when present), and any reviewer notes — but only a curated subset is surfaced publicly. The public verify surface exposes an integrity hash, the claim id, the credential id, and a stewardship-curated one-line of what was reviewed. Raw evidence is held by the steward panel; it is never linked from the public surface.
PoT-00012 · /verify resolves only when the credential is real
SAMPLE — NOT A REAL CREDENTIAL · Demonstration record (forEmployers.registry.sampleTag)
This surface is a sample demonstration record used to illustrate what a real ledger entry looks like. The live ledger does not resolve this id — it is part of a closed teaching set the holder dashboard and printed PDF both flag.
/verify/PoT-00012
Sample · No record on the Proofworks public registry
Demonstration card · Does not resolve against the live ledger
Struck from the registry.
The credential is no longer in good standing. A contest was filed, a fresh steward panel reviewed it, and the panel sustained the challenge. The audit log records the date and reason — and that record is itself part of the public ledger.
PoT-00012 · /verify resolves only when the credential is real
SAMPLE — NOT A REAL CREDENTIAL · Demonstration record (forEmployers.registry.sampleTag)
This surface is a sample demonstration record used to illustrate what a real ledger entry looks like. The live ledger does not resolve this id — it is part of a closed teaching set the holder dashboard and printed PDF both flag.
/verify/PoT-00012
Sample · No record on the Proofworks public registry
Demonstration card · Does not resolve against the live ledger
Pre-mint review.
Internal register only. A submission sits here while the steward panel weighs the evidence and before any Degree is minted. A recruiter will not see this state on the public ledger — credentials only enter the books after minting.
PoT-00012 · /verify resolves only when the credential is real
The verification flow
Four readings of the same record — paste a credential ID, scan a printed QR, drop an iframe into a portfolio, or GET a JSON envelope from your ATS — so a recruiter can verify in whatever format they already use. The four surfaces share one ledger; if the public URL resolves, every other surface resolves to the same record.
JSON for ATS integrations, background-check vendors, and onboarding tools. The response is a stable envelope — credentialId, holderName, skill, track, status, issuedAt, verifyUrl — parseable ahead of time. Unknown IDs collapse to a typed 404 envelope so a downstream system can branch on CredentialNotFound without scraping HTML.
GET `/api/verify/PoT-00012`
→ 200 { "credentialId": "PoT-00012", "status": "active", ... }A ~320px iframe badge designed for Linktree, LinkedIn, and trade directories. SiteNav and SiteFooter are hidden on the embed surface so the badge reads as a clean third-party widget. Drop the snippet below anywhere an iframe is accepted:
<iframe src="/embed/PoT-00012"
width="320" height="220" frameborder="0"></iframe>The QR printed on a credential card resolves the same record. A recruiter pointing the phone's camera at the badge lands on the human verify card — holder, capability, track, status, audit hash, source claim — without typing a URL.
One URL collects every Degree the named holder carries, cross-track — Trades and Oddities alike. Useful when the candidate has more than one credential, or when the recruiter wants to see the whole record in one read.
Look-up & cross-reference
Five readings of the same ledger. Start at the human URL when you have a clipboard; start at the JSON envelope when an ATS needs a stable endpoint; start at /audit/[id] when a contest or revocation is the question; start at /u/[handle] when one holder carries more than one Degree; start at /embed/[id] when the credential needs to land in a portfolio or directory. They share one ledger — what resolves one does not contradict the others.
Paste the ID. The verify card resolves to one record — holder, capability, track, status, audit hash, source claim — and links to the full audit trail beneath the surface.
A ~320px iframe badge for Linktree, LinkedIn and trade directories. Drop the snippet into any surface that accepts an iframe and the credential renders itself.
A stable JSON envelope for background-check vendors, ATS pipelines, and onboarding tools. credentialId, holderName, skill, track, status, issuedAt, verifyUrl. Unknown IDs resolve to a typed 404 envelope so a downstream system can branch on CredentialNotFound without scraping HTML.
One URL collects every Degree the named holder carries, cross-track. Useful when the candidate has more than one credential — Trades and Oddities alike render in a single read.
The full audit log under the credential — every review note, every contest, every revocation event, with timestamps. The backstop surface when a contest, a revocation, or a dispute is the question being asked.
Recruiter flow
Open /verify/[id] as the first read — the human verify card is the canonical read. Use /api/verify/[id] for any ATS or workflow that already has an HTTP surface. Use /audit/[id] when the question is whether the credential was contested, and /u/[handle] when the candidate carries more than one Degree. The five paths do not diverge — what resolves one resolves the rest.
Worked hiring scenarios
Same hiring loop, two responses. The point is not résumé polish — it is whether the ledger has anything to resolve against.
Sample · Illustrative scenarios · No record on the Proofworks public registry
forEmployers.registry.sampleTag · Not a real credential
Claim submitted
Demonstrated competency in oxy-fuel fusion welding of low-carbon steel plate to AWS D1.1 procedure.
Trades track · PoT-00012 · active · stamp auditable from the ledger.
A fourteen-year welder with no formal apprenticeship attached a sign-off affidavit and thirteen work-orders to the claim. The steward panel weighed the work on its own signal — oxy-acetylene fusion welds on 6mm low-carbon steel coupon per AWS D1.1. The Degree is minted as PoT-00012, active, attributable to a named holder. The audit log is independently verifiable and tamper-evident on the public ledger while protected evidence stays private.
forEmployers.registry.sampleTag · Not a real credential
Claim on résumé
Bachelor's in Business, INSEAD MBA; Proofworks has no record for this holder.
Proofworks has no record to resolve. The résumé is the only thing to read.
An MBA-holding operator with a conventional résumé arrives. Proofworks does not have a record for this holder, so the public ledger returns nothing. A recruiter reading the same hiring loop sees a different shape on the page: when Proofworks has nothing for a candidate, there is nothing to verify, and the résumé is the only artifact under review. Proofworks is an independent evidence layer that runs alongside conventional credentials — it does not replace a degree, a licence, or a certificate.
forEmployers.registry.sampleTag · Not a real credential
Claim submitted
Eleven years' independent practice in São Paulo; work described by prior clients and recorded work-orders; no North-American certification.
Oddities track · PoO-00012 · active · travels with the holder across the border.
A São Paulo locksmith with eleven years of independent practice applies for North-American work. No North-American certification exists for the niche, but the claim carries documented work-orders and statements from prior clients abroad. The Oddities track reviews the claim on its signal — rec drill the work, not the residency. PoO-00012 is minted active and travels with the holder.
Continue the read
Four destinations line up from here: resolve a live credential at /verify/[id]; filter the public registry for everything currently in good standing; read the canonical disclosure — $50 submission fee for independent claim review — at every surface that mentions the fee; read the governance record at /governance for reviewer independence and contest standing.
01
Every credential currently on the books — filterable by track and capability. A recruiting-side view of the whole ledger.
Open the registry02
Open /verify/PoT-00012 — a real, live Worked example, the working welder's records — the same surface a candidate hands you with their claim packet. Use it to learn the shape and the fields before a real credential arrives.
Try /verify/PoT-0001203
$50 submission fee for independent claim review funds facilitation, third-party steward time, and the audit trail — receipt matched, credential never charged. A reference for quoting a candidate's timeline.
Read what the submission fee funds04
Reviewer independence, contest standing, and revocation. The public record a recruiter can read cold at /governance, the same one a panel works against.
Open /governanceDirect line
If you have a question about a credential you are reading, or you are evaluating proofworks for a recurring flow — the inbox is read by a human within two business days.