Skip to main content

​
Evidence

Evidence in PressChain is a first-class record linked to a Capsule. It is not a free-form comment and it is not a hidden moderation annotation. Evidence has an identifier, type, URI, content hash, media metadata, submitter, primary flag, active state and an independent tally. The V3 evidence registry lets applications preserve both supporting material and later dispute material without rewriting the original Capsule.

​
Evidence record

The active contract stores:
This is intentionally richer than a URL. The hash lets a consumer check artifact integrity, while metadataURI and coverUrl support structured presentation.

​
Evidence is anchored to an existing Capsule

Both canonical and dispute evidence require the referenced Capsule to exist. The registry rejects the zero Capsule ID and missing Capsules. That guarantees evidence is not floating in the protocol without a publication context.

​
Canonical versus dispute evidence

Normal addEvidence rejects evidence type 255. That value is reserved for submitDisputeEvidence, which creates a record labeled DISPUTE_EVIDENCE. This gives applications an explicit way to render evidence that supports or documents the publication separately from evidence introduced to challenge it.

​
Primary evidence

The isPrimary flag lets a publisher identify evidence that is especially central to the Capsule. Applications should not interpret “primary” as “proven true.” It describes relationship and importance, not a universal truth judgment. For example, an original court filing might be marked primary evidence for an article about that filing, while a secondary news article about the same case would not be.

​
Active state

Evidence can be marked inactive by protocol administration. Deactivation does not erase the record. This preserves the audit history while allowing clients to distinguish current active evidence from a record that should no longer participate in normal presentation. A robust indexer stores both the historical EvidenceAdded event and current active state.

​
Tally state

Every newly added evidence item receives an open tally with zero support, reject and participation counts. Voting can update those counts until finalization. Do not collapse the evidence object and the tally into one application status. Artifact integrity, active state, vote state and finalization answer different questions.

​
Example use cases

A newsroom can attach a public-record PDF to a Capsule. An investigative application can attach a data export and a chart preview. A reader can inspect a dispute record submitted later. A fact-checking interface can show participation and finalized evidence status alongside the original source document. Each of those applications can use the same protocol evidence record without sharing a private database.

​
Evidence does not replace editorial judgment

PressChain makes evidence relationships inspectable and durable. It does not claim that a high support count automatically resolves every factual dispute. Applications should show source material and provenance rather than hiding them behind a single score.