The lineage layer matters, but the deeper question is who is allowed to vouch. When DigiNotar fell in 2011, every fraudulent certificate was cryptographically valid — the system survived because browsers held a finite, curated list of acceptable issuers and could expel a member within days. Agent provenance will hit the same moment: somebody has to write the list of who can issue proof, and that list is where the leverage actually lands. Wrote about how that played out last time: https://seldondance.substack.com/p/somebody-has-to-write-the-list
The lineage layer matters, but the deeper question is who is allowed to vouch. When DigiNotar fell in 2011, every fraudulent certificate was cryptographically valid — the system survived because browsers held a finite, curated list of acceptable issuers and could expel a member within days. Agent provenance will hit the same moment: somebody has to write the list of who can issue proof, and that list is where the leverage actually lands. Wrote about how that played out last time: https://seldondance.substack.com/p/somebody-has-to-write-the-list