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AUDITOR VETTING PROCESS

Sovereign Trace Protocol — Certified Auditor Program

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║   ⬡  SOVEREIGN TRACE PROTOCOL  ⬡                                ║
║   Auditor Vetting Process · Certification Standards · FROZEN-2.0 ║
║   Architect: Sheldon K. Salmon · AI Reliability & AGI Architect  ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Document Version: AVP-v1.0 Governing Standard: FROZEN-2.0 Effective: March 2026

WHAT A CERTIFIED AUDITOR IS

An STP Certified Auditor is an independent professional authorized to conduct AI output audits and file audit completions directly to the Sovereign Trace Protocol ledger under their own badge number.

A Certified Auditor is not an employee or contractor of the Sovereign Trace Protocol. They are an independently operating professional who has demonstrated the specific capability to assess AI outputs honestly and has accepted the obligations that come with a badge.

The badge is not a credential. It is a commitment.

THE CORE CRITERION

There is one criterion for certification:

Demonstrated ability to assess AI outputs honestly.

This is skills-based. It is not credential-based. A PhD in computer science does not qualify someone who cannot assess AI outputs honestly. A high school diploma does not disqualify someone who can.

The vetting process is designed to surface genuine capability — not to filter by institutional affiliation.

THE VETTING PROCESS — FOUR STAGES

Stage 1 — Application

File a 12-auditor-application.yml issue in the Sovereign Trace Protocol repository.

The application must include:

  • Full legal name
  • LinkedIn profile URL (required — badge is bound to LinkedIn permanently)
  • Professional background summary (2–3 sentences)
  • Why you are applying (1 paragraph)
  • Any relevant experience with AI systems, audit, or quality assurance

Applications are reviewed Monday and Tuesday only. Not every application proceeds to Stage 2.

Stage 2 — Skills Assessment

Applicants who pass Stage 1 review receive a Skills Assessment directly via LinkedIn message from the Architect.

The Skills Assessment consists of 10 real AI outputs selected from the STP ledger or from publicly available sources. Applicants must:

  1. Identify whether each output contains a failure, and if so, classify the failure type using the STP schema.
  2. Assess the severity of each failure (Low / Medium / High / Critical).
  3. Explain their reasoning for each assessment in plain language.
  4. Identify any epistemic debt outstanding — gaps in the record that would prevent a clean certification finding.

What the assessment measures:

  • Accuracy of failure detection (can you find what's wrong?)
  • Calibration of severity (do you know how wrong it is?)
  • Honest reasoning (do you say "I don't know" when you don't know?)
  • Epistemic discipline (do you distinguish what you can prove from what you suspect?)

What the assessment does not measure:

  • Speed
  • Credential pedigree
  • Familiarity with STP-specific terminology

Stage 3 — Review and Decision

The Architect reviews the Skills Assessment and makes a binary determination: certified or not certified.

There is no partial certification. There is no provisional badge. There is no score. Either the capability is present or it is not.

Criteria for certification:

  • All 10 outputs assessed with honest reasoning
  • Failure classification accurate on at least 8 of 10
  • No overconfident findings on genuinely ambiguous outputs (marking uncertain cases as [?] is correct behavior, not a failure)
  • No fabricated findings — assessments must be traceable to the actual output, not to assumed context

Grounds for immediate rejection:

  • Fabricated findings not grounded in the provided output
  • Confident assessment on outputs with insufficient evidence
  • Plagiarized or AI-generated assessment submitted as own work

Stage 4 — Badge Issuance

Upon certification:

  1. Badge number assigned: STP-AUDITOR-XXXX (sequential)
  2. Badge SVG generated with auditor name and badge number
  3. Entry added to .github/verified-auditors.json
  4. Badge SHA-256 sealed at issuance — the seal is the issuance record
  5. Auditor agreement issued — terms and platform percentage confirmed

Badge properties at issuance:

  • Non-transferable — bound to legal name and LinkedIn permanently
  • SHA-256 sealed — cryptographically anchored to issuance moment
  • Term: 1 year from issuance date
  • Annual cap: 50 sealed audits per calendar year per badge
  • Renewal: reapplication only — prior certification does not guarantee renewal

AUDITOR OBLIGATIONS

By accepting a badge, the certified auditor agrees to:

  1. Conduct all assessments personally — no delegation or AI-generated findings submitted under the badge
  2. Decline assessments where a conflict of interest exists
  3. Report any integrity concern via 13-integrity-violation.yml immediately upon discovery
  4. Maintain the confidentiality of any non-public client information encountered during an engagement
  5. Cease using the badge immediately upon expiration or revocation and remove it from any public-facing materials

REVOCATION

A badge may be revoked for:

  • Fabricated or falsified audit findings
  • Conflict of interest not disclosed
  • Bribery, coercion, or integrity violations
  • Badge use after expiration without renewal
  • Badge transfer or sharing
  • Any conduct that materially undermines the integrity of the STP ledger

Revocation procedure:

  1. Integrity violation reported via 13-integrity-violation.yml or identified by the Architect directly
  2. Architect reviews within 5 business days
  3. If revocation is warranted: badge removed from .github/verified-auditors.json and added to revoked-auditors.json with sealed revocation record
  4. All future audit completions filed with the revoked badge will be automatically flagged AUDITOR_REVOKED — permanently and immutably

No single party holds unilateral revocation authority in production. Structural limits are intentional. The revocation record itself is sealed and permanent.

THE AUDITOR NETWORK AS INSTITUTION

There are no STP Certified Auditors yet. The first badge has not been issued.

This document exists because the process of becoming a certified auditor must be defined before the first badge is issued — not after. An institution that defines its standards retroactively is not an institution. It is a retrofit.

The vetting process described here will govern the first application the same way it governs the fiftieth.

BADGE REFERENCE

Field Value
Format STP-AUDITOR-XXXX
Badge file badges/stp-auditor-badge-v2.svg
Registry .github/verified-auditors.json
Revocation registry .github/revoked-auditors.json
Term 1 year from issuance
Annual audit cap 50 sealed audits

Sheldon K. Salmon · AI Reliability & AGI Architect · March 2026 Sovereign Trace Protocol · FROZEN-2.0 aionsystem2026@gmail.com github.com/AionSystem/SOVEREIGN-TRACE-PROTOCOL