Zero-Trust Operational Model

9.1 Zero-Trust Operational Model

All Access Must Be Verified. No Node or Credential Is Presumed Honest.

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9.1.1 Why Zero-Trust Is Mandatory for NSF

NSF is not a closed network. It spans:

• High-risk jurisdictions

• Compromised institutions

• Unverified actors in treaty contexts

• Sensor data from untrusted edge environments

• Executable governance with economic and diplomatic consequences

A zero-trust operational model is non-negotiable. All actors, triggers, and systems must operate as if:

• They are untrusted

• Any state could be malicious or spoofed

• All logic must be independently verified before acceptance

This enables cryptographic trust even in conditions of institutional failure, cyberattack, or disinformation.

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9.1.2 Zero-Trust Principles Embedded in NSF

Principle	NSF Implementation
No implicit trust in identities	All DIDs must resolve to VC-authenticated, auditable chains with quorum endorsements
All triggers require proof	Clause triggers must be signed, simulated, and linked to auditable data provenance
All execution must be attestable	Compute results pass through CAC or ZK proof workflows before affecting state
DAOs are not trusted by default	DAO proposals, votes, and membership logic require signature verification and quorum validation
Credentials are always revocable	All VCs support real-time revocation lists and Merkle-based verification trees
No shared secrets	All communication is asymmetric, session-limited, and metadata-partitioned

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9.1.3 Zero-Trust Across Execution Boundaries

Layer	Enforcement Mechanism
Edge runtime	Local CAC with attestable clause engines and signed simulation outputs
TEE-based compute	Remote attestation with signed enclave measurements and ZK proofs of consistency
DAO governance	Quorum enforcement, cross-checking with simulation run logs, and execution dependencies
Credential lifecycle	No credential is trusted without Merkle-linked issuance proof and current validity attestation
Sensor integration	Each signal is either simulated, aggregated with confidence bounds, or rejected on schema violation

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9.1.4 Identity and Credential Scope Constraints

Every actor in NSF is:

• Bound to role-limited credential scopes

• Restricted to jurisdictional or clause-specific actions

• Audited through their past behavior and simulation-linked outputs

• Blocked from issuing or executing logic beyond their verified domain

For example: A user with WaterReliefCoordinatorVC cannot trigger finance clauses unless linked by DAO vote and credential multipliers.

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9.1.5 No Trusted Clocks, Oracles, or Anchors

NSF never assumes:

• That system time is trusted (uses multisource timestamp reconciliation)

• That sensor data is genuine (uses quorum-verified simulation backchecks)

• That DAO decisions are benevolent (uses clause-encoded override logic with cross-domain arbitration)

• That IPFS hashes or on-chain states are immutable (uses anchored state replay proofs and fork detection)

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9.1.6 Zero-Trust by Default, Resilience by Design

NSF is engineered under the assumption that:

• Any component may be compromised

• Any institution may fail or misrepresent

• Any data source may be manipulated

• Any governance process may be corrupted

It does not respond with paranoia—but with formal verification, cryptographic traceability, decentralized validation, and layered fallback paths.

NSF doesn’t remove trust—it replaces it with verification.