Verify a seal

Every degree is recorded in the Register together with the addresses where the work lives. A seal shown anywhere else is not genuine, however well it is copied.

Every entry is signed with the Foundation’s private key. This site checks each signature before it answers, and an entry that does not match is treated as not genuine. Every change is also kept in a public, append-only log in which each record is chained to the one before it, so no grant can be backdated and no revocation quietly removed. Anyone can check both independently with the published keys.

Certificates carry the same number, a QR code that opens the entry, and the fingerprint of its signature. A certificate is only as good as its entry: if the entry is suspended, lapsed or revoked, so is the certificate.