Overview

A verification level is one of the two independent questions a verifier can ask about an entropy observation. Internal verification uses only the stored record and no network access: it re-canonicalizes and re-hashes the observation’s value and checks the per-row Ed25519 signature, proving the record is self-consistent and Truestamp-endorsed. External verification re-fetches the value from the original public source (a public Bitcoin block explorer, the NIST beacon pulse URL, or the Stellar ledger) and compares the published fields, proving the stored value is a faithful copy of what that source actually published. The combined verification summary merges both levels plus the Merkle inclusion check and passes only when no individual check fails; an observation not yet committed into a block shows the Merkle step as skipped, not failed. The levels are covered in depth in entropy verification levels, and the underlying sources in entropy sources.