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Credence Foundation

Constitutional Standards & Trust Vault

Constitutional rule catalogs, journalistic ethics standards, and cryptographic root keys governing Credence audits.

Canonical Taxonomy Catalogs

Complete deterministic rule classifications pinned by cryptographic SHA-256 integrity hashes. All 36 canonical rules across the 3 core catalogs are listed below with full descriptions.

📰 Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics
JOURNALISTIC_ETHICS 13 Rules Weight 1.2x ▼ Toggle
SPJ-1.1 Sev 3 Unsourced Factual Assertion
Significant factual, scientific, or statistical claims made without citations, primary sources, or verifiable provenance.
SPJ-1.2 Sev 4 Headline / Body Distortion
Misleading headline disparity where the article title or social preview contradicts or grossly inflates what the body text substantiates.
SPJ-1.3 Sev 3 Uncorroborated Anonymous Sourcing
Damaging assertions attributed exclusively to unnamed sources without explanatory justification or multiple independent corroborating points.
SPJ-1.4 Sev 4 Deceptive Context & Selective Omission
Quoting individuals or citing data while intentionally omitting critical qualifiers, timestamps, or full context that changes the fundamental meaning.
SPJ-1.5 Sev 3 Blurred Editorial Demarcation
Op-eds, speculative commentary, or sponsored marketing presented with the visual styling and framing of objective hard news.
SPJ-1.6 Sev 5 Satire Cloaking & Bad-Faith Camouflage
Malicious disinformation or defamatory falsehoods masquerading as satire or parody to evade accountability (Poe's Law Override applies).
SPJ-2.1 Sev 4 Sensational Exploitation of Tragedy
Gratuitous sensationalism exploiting private victims, minors, or grief for emotional engagement or ad clicks.
SPJ-2.2 Sev 5 Doxxing & Unjustified Privacy Intrusion
Publishing private phone numbers, home addresses, or private identifying documents without legitimate public interest justification.
SPJ-3.1 Sev 4 Undisclosed Commercial or Political Conflict
Favorable coverage of products, donors, or political candidates without disclosing financial, ownership, or affiliate ties.
SPJ-3.2 Sev 5 Disguised Native Advertising
Paid promotional marketing designed to mimic an independent investigative article.
SPJ-4.1 Sev 4 Stealth Modification & Silent Edits
Substantive post-publication changes to key factual assertions, numbers, or quotes without publishing an explicit, timestamped editorial correction notice.
SPJ-4.2 Sev 2 Ghost or Anonymous Publishing
News reports published without an author byline, editorial board masthead, or organization contact.
SPJ-4.3 Sev 2 Lack of Transparent Corrections Policy
Absence of a visible corrections log, contact channel for factual disputes, or retraction standards.
🧠 Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) Fallacies
LOGICAL_FALLACY 15 Rules Weight 1.0x ▼ Toggle
IEP-1.1 Sev 3 Ad Hominem (Abusive / Circumstantial)
Attacking an opponent's character, background, appearance, or motives instead of engaging with their substantive argument.
IEP-1.2 Sev 3 Tu Quoque / Whataboutism
Deflecting criticism by accusing the accuser of hypocrisy or raising unrelated counter-allegations.
IEP-1.3 Sev 4 Poisoning the Well
Preemptively presenting adverse information about an opponent to discredit anything they might say beforehand.
IEP-1.4 Sev 2 Genetic Fallacy
Judging the validity of an idea purely on the basis of its origin or source history rather than its merits.
IEP-2.1 Sev 3 Begging the Question (Petitio Principii)
An argument whose premises assume the truth of the conclusion they are supposed to prove.
IEP-2.2 Sev 3 False Dilemma / Forced Dichotomy
Presenting complex, nuanced situations as an either/or choice while ignoring viable middle grounds.
IEP-2.3 Sev 3 Loaded Question
Asking a question containing an unproven, incriminating presumption that cannot be answered simply without admitting guilt.
IEP-2.4 Sev 4 Cherry-Picking (Texas Sharpshooter)
Highlighting only confirming evidence or favorable outliers while ignoring vast contradictory data.
IEP-3.1 Sev 3 Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
Assuming that because Event B occurred after Event A, Event A must have caused Event B.
IEP-3.2 Sev 3 Correlation as Causation
Treating statistical correlation between two variables as definitive proof that one causes the other.
IEP-3.3 Sev 2 Hasty Generalization
Drawing a broad conclusion from a sample that is too small or unrepresentative.
IEP-3.4 Sev 3 Slippery Slope
Claiming that a minor initial step will inevitably trigger a disastrous chain reaction without proving each link.
IEP-4.1 Sev 4 Appeal to Fear (In Terrorem)
Using fabricated, exaggerated, or apocalyptic terror scenarios to coerce acceptance of a claim.
IEP-4.2 Sev 3 Appeal to False Authority
Citing the opinion of a celebrity, non-expert, or authority in an unrelated field as definitive proof.
IEP-5.1 Sev 4 Straw Man Argument
Misrepresenting, exaggerating, or oversimplifying an opponent's argument to make it easier to attack.
🛑 Deceptive UI Patterns Catalog
DECEPTIVE_PATTERN 8 Rules Weight 1.5x ▼ Toggle
DEC-1.1 Sev 4 Hidden Drip Pricing & Sneak-into-Basket
Concealing mandatory fees, service surcharges, or auto-selected items until the final steps of a transaction.
DEC-1.2 Sev 3 Confirmshaming & Manipulative Microcopy
Phrasing opt-out button text to guilt, insult, or shame the user into complying with the site's preferred choice.
DEC-1.3 Sev 3 Visual Contrast Suppression
Making crucial terms, recurring billing conditions, or opt-out links nearly invisible using ultra-low contrast or microscopic fonts.
DEC-2.1 Sev 4 Fake Urgency & Resetting Countdowns
Displaying artificial timers, countdowns, or claims of impending price hikes that automatically reset upon page reload.
DEC-2.2 Sev 4 Fabricated Social Proof & Fake Activity
Generating synthetic notifications claiming other users just purchased the item or that high demand is depleting stock.
DEC-2.3 Sev 5 Roach Motel / Trapped Cancellation
Making it effortless to subscribe (1-click), but requiring phone calls, maze-like forms, or hidden menus to cancel.
DEC-3.1 Sev 5 Fake System Warnings & Rogue Dialogs
Simulating native operating system error dialogs, antivirus infection alerts, or browser crash screens to frighten users.
DEC-3.2 Sev 5 Bait and Switch
Promising one outcome (e.g. clicking 'Close' or 'Skip') but executing an entirely different action (e.g. opening an ad or initiating checkout).

Network Root Cryptographic Authority

The official network root Ed25519 public key used to sign seed manifests and taxonomy releases:

Root Public Key (root.pub)
curl -fsSL https://keys.credence.foundation/root.pub
Algorithm ℹ
Ed25519 (PureEdDSA)
Canonical Envelope ℹ
RFC 8785 Canonical JSON
Custody Plane
Cloudflare R2 • Edge Bound

In-Browser WebCrypto Ed25519 Verification Sandbox

Verify signed epistemic audit envelopes and taxonomy manifests entirely client-side using the standard W3C Web Cryptography API with zero backend calls.

Autonomous Standards Ratification & RFC Pipeline

Tier 0 Quorum: ≥ 66.7% Byzantine Tier 1 Quorum: ≥ 70.0% Domain Authority

Credence standards evolve through an empirical, machine-driven pipeline. Adoption is determined mathematically by active nodes running synthetic calibration gauntlets, background mesh shadow trials, and deterministic Ed25519 attestation voting without human committee bottlenecks.

🏛️ Tier 0: Universal General Global Quorum ≥ 66.7%

Foundational journalistic ethics (SPJ), logical fallacies (IEP), and deceptive UI patterns. Universal baseline evaluated across all nodes.

🔬 Tier 1: Domain Specialist Weighted Median ≥ 70%

Domain-specific catalogs (financial filings, clinical medicine, local government). Ratified by nodes with verified domain authority.

🏢 Tier 2: Sovereign Niche Root Authority Key

Custom enterprise, institutional, or municipal rules. Activated autonomously by the sponsoring federation organization's root key.

📜 Active & Ratified RFC Standards Registry

📖 Standards Authoring Handbook ↗
RFC ID & Title Tier Domain Stage Quorum / Votes CAS Hash
RFC-001: Core SPJ Journalistic Ethics Standard
Foundational 13-rule journalistic integrity framework
 Universal General JOURNALISTIC_ETHICS RATIFIED 100.0% (13/13) sha256:5e2c...74d
RFC-002: IEP Logical Fallacy Catalog
15 formal fallacy definitions and evidentiary rules
 Universal General LOGICAL_FALLACY RATIFIED 92.3% (12/13) sha256:2d18...a10
RFC-003: Deceptive Patterns & Camouflage Registry
Consumer protection rules for visual and advertorial camouflage
 Universal General DECEPTIVE_PATTERN RATIFIED 84.6% (11/13) sha256:e049...fc2

⚡ 5-Stage Autonomous Machine Ratification Pipeline

1. AST Schema Gate Hermetic Linting
Validates YAML structure, ≥2 detection signals per rule, and severity scaling (<0.3s).
2. Synthetic Gauntlet F₁ ≥ 0.87 & FPR=0%
Evaluates precision, recall, and zero false positives against the Golden Control Corpus.
3. Mesh Shadow Trial 500-Audit Canary
Autonomous canary run on live feeds with a 1-canary cap and ≥40% token headroom floor.
4. Node Attestation Ed25519 Quorum
Nodes sign vote envelopes. Passed proposals meet Byzantine or domain-weighted thresholds.
5. Hot-Reload SHA-256 Pinning
Ratified standard is pinned to content-addressed storage and hot-reloaded across the mesh.
🧪 Interactive Standard Catalog Validator & Gauntlet Simulator

Paste candidate YAML taxonomy catalog below to run instant client-side AST validation and Synthetic Benchmark Gauntlet simulation: