Recourse
What stands behind a verdict, and what release means today.
Two different things stand behind a ZadQ verdict, and they are easy to confuse. This page tells them apart, says who can ask for what, and states plainly what happens to a request for release today.
Two things, told apart
A positive verdict says that an accountable, verified operator stands behind an endpoint or an agent. Behind that sentence sit two mechanisms. Neither is the other.
The issuer's guarantee deposit on the network
The issuer that verifies operators and signs attestations holds a guarantee deposit on the MintID identity network, on the same published terms as any issuer, and can lose it. ZadQ's verifier reads that deposit on every re-check: while it is below the published minimum, the positive verdict is withheld and the verdict says why. ZadQ is operated by the CONECTIA group, the network's first implementer; the issuer's deposit is read the same way for everyone, and the record is public.
The accountability escrow behind an agent
When an operator mints an agent credential, the link between that agent and the accountable party behind it is sealed with the issuer. It is readable by nobody at ZadQ. The escrow protects the accountable party's accountability: it makes sure someone answers, it does not publish who.
Who can ask for release
- Of the accountability escrow
- Nobody at ZadQ. Release exists only through the network's dispute process, which is specified on the network's side and not yet activated.
- Of the issuer's guarantee deposit
- The network, under its published rules; never ZadQ.
What happens to a release request today
Every request for release of an accountability escrow is refused and recorded. The issuer keeps a hash-chained audit trail of its escrows: when one was sealed, when terms were opened at a renewal, when a release was requested and refused, when a cascade or a lease sweep closed it. ZadQ's operator console reads that trail as counts and verifies the chain; it resolves no record to a person, and it stores nothing but the counts. We say this plainly because the alternative is to let a funded-recourse pillar read as a promise it is not yet.
What a harmed party can do today
Before the network's dispute process is activated, recourse works through standing, not through release.
- Report with evidence. Write to ZadQ with the endpoint or the agent handle, what happened and the evidence. ZadQ passes it to the issuer; it never asks for, and never receives, a person's identity in the process.
- Revocation on evidence. An issuer that finds the evidence sufficient suspends or revokes the attestation or the credential under its published status rules. Within 185 seconds of the issuer recording it, that credential presents nowhere and every verifier reads the change; a revoked operator's agents stop being verifiable with it.
- The kill switch stays with the holder. If a key leaks, the holder revokes its own credential without naming it: it stops presenting at once, and within 245 seconds of the revocation being recorded the credential presents nowhere, including any copy taken before. ZadQ revokes nothing on a holder's behalf.
- A claim against the operator, at law. The operator behind an attested endpoint is identified. A buyer’s remedies are those the law gives it against that operator; ZadQ runs no claims procedure of its own.
What the network's funded-recourse layer will add
MintID specifies a funded-recourse layer for agents: a principal's own funds, locked in a contract the principal controls, on the network where those funds live; the identity network keeps the reservation state, checks a proof of the lock and runs no smart contracts itself. At the lower bands it is a proof of balance, no lock at all. It is specified on the network's side and not yet activated. ZadQ will describe it here when it ships, with its status; until then nothing on this site promises it.
ZadQ is built on the MintID identity network and operated by the CONECTIA group, the network's first implementer, on the same published terms as any issuer: the same admission, the same bond on the network, the same status rules, verifiable by anyone on the network's public record. We disclose this relationship wherever it is relevant.
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