The internet needs a new primitive for evidence
When automated systems interact across organizational boundaries, internal logs are not proof. PEAC creates portable, verifiable records of what happened.
The shift
The internet is no longer human-first
Automated callers now browse, scrape, negotiate, and transact at a scale the original web was never designed for. We still govern machine behavior using artifacts built for humans: UI terms, vendor dashboards, internal logs.
That approach breaks the moment interactions cross organizational boundaries.
When two parties disagree, there is rarely a portable, neutral record of what policy applied, what was requested, what was served, and what evidence exists for consent or settlement. Each side points to its own logs. Regulators and auditors get screenshots. Safety teams get fragmented traces spread across vendors.
What's missing
The missing primitive
We have strong protocols for moving data and coordinating systems. What we lack is a shared, interoperable format for verifiable evidence of what happened.
PEAC standardizes verifiable interaction records: portable evidence files that can be checked using published verification keys, stored independently, and shared when needed - without trusting a vendor dashboard.
Terminology:
A record is the concept organizations rely on for accountability. A receipt is the signed file format that encodes a record. PEAC produces tamper-evident receipts for automated interactions.
What PEAC defines
A deliberately small core
PEAC is an open standard designed to do one thing well.
Policy discovery
A file-discoverable policy surface at /.well-known/peac.txt for machine-readable terms.
Receipt format
A signed receipt file that represents an interaction record - who, what, when, under which terms.
Deterministic verification
Rules that let independent verifiers reach the same result on the same artifact. No privileged access needed.
Evidence bundles
Optional portable packages for disputes, audits, and reconciliation across organizations.
PEAC is rail-neutral. It does not require a blockchain, a specific payment provider, or a shared database. Adapters provide clean seams to existing ecosystems.
Why it matters
Beyond engineering
Cross-organization problems tend to fail at the evidence layer.
Accountability
Oversight requires records that survive vendor boundaries and incentive conflicts.
Incident review
Safety investigations need portable evidence of what a system did, under what declared intent.
Research
Reproducibility requires stable evidence artifacts and deterministic verification outputs.
Rights and consent
If terms exist, there must be a way to verify whether they were followed.
Economics
If settlement occurs, evidence should remain useful even if the underlying rail changes.
PEAC does not solve these domains by itself. It makes them technically tractable by giving systems a shared evidence artifact.
Scope boundaries
What PEAC does not standardize
PEAC is intentionally not a grab-bag standard. It standardizes the evidence layer beside these systems:
Philosophy
Design principles
Neutral evidence, not dashboards
Verification should work without privileged access to a vendor system.
Deterministic verification
Different verifiers should reach the same result on the same artifact.
Minimize data by default
Prefer hashes and references over raw payloads. Avoid unnecessary personal data.
Fail closed
Ambiguity is an attack surface. Unclear artifacts should not silently pass verification.
Interoperability over capture
PEAC should compose with systems people already use, with clean seams and optional adapters.
Interoperability
How PEAC relates to other ecosystems
PEAC is designed to complement, not replace.
Payment handshakes
HTTP 402 ecosystems
Those systems negotiate and settle. PEAC carries verifiable settlement references as portable evidence.
Attestation and anchoring
EAS-style systems
PEAC receipts are the primary evidence artifact. Anchoring can reference or wrap them when useful.
Agent and tool protocols
MCP, A2A, ACP
Those systems coordinate calls. PEAC attaches portable records alongside them.
Observability
OpenTelemetry
Telemetry is internal. PEAC is portable evidence that can correlate to telemetry when parties choose.
This is the non-capture posture: PEAC should remain useful even when a party changes rails, vendors, or orchestration stacks.
Evaluate PEAC
Start with the artifacts
PEAC should be evaluated through verification work: independent implementations, security reviews, applied research, and pilots where cross-organization evidence is a real requirement.
Read the policy surface
/.well-known/peac.txt
Verify a sample receipt
Online verification tool
Review governance
Neutrality and decision-making
See security and evaluation
Security model and framework
If you are reviewing PEAC as a grantmaker, institution, or protocol maintainer, start with a technical review call anchored on these artifacts.
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