- ID: YYBW-018
- Status: Decided
- Date: 2026-04-13
- Scope: YY Branching World / YY's World evolution
- Depends on: YYBW-012, YYBW-013, YYBW-017
- Supersedes / clarifies: Clarifies blockchain-adjacent future-proofing
- Museum lineage: PM-013, SK-003
Context
In the distant future, others may become involved and stronger verification or distributed attestation may matter. The right response is not to build on blockchain now, but to preserve the hooks that make later verification possible without contorting the product today.
Decision
Design for future verifiability, not current chain dependence. Immutable events should support:
- stable IDs
- hashes
- provenance fields
- optional signatures
- exportability
- optional future attestation backends
No blockchain dependency is required now.
Why
This keeps the product:
- simple now
- extensible later
- compatible with stronger trust layers if collaboration or public verification becomes important
Alternatives considered
- Blockchain-first architecture now — rejected as distorting and premature.
- No future-proofing at all — rejected because append-only provenance invites later verification naturally.
- Chain-specific assumptions — rejected because the right future verification substrate is unknown.
Reversals / scars preserved
- The future verification instinct was kept, but disciplined.
- The crucial correction was: let blockchain verify the ledger later, not define the product now.
- Abstract hooks beat speculative complexity.
Consequences
- Event schemas should leave room for hash/signature fields.
- Batch attestation can be added later without changing domain logic.
- Collaboration models can be layered on top of current provenance architecture.
Invariants preserved
Survivability, Explainability, and Discipline all benefit from future-proof but deferred verification.
Freshness boundary
Long-horizon; low-priority until collaboration or trust requirements materially change.