Reference

Glossary

Canonical definitions of terms used in the Mediary trust verification protocol. These definitions are authoritative — if a term is used differently elsewhere, this glossary is the source of truth.

Mediary's core vocabulary includes 10 defined terms. The Trust Readiness Index (TRI) is the central metric — a score from 0 to 100 derived from 8 independently verified trust signals. Each signal follows the Evidence → Verification → Signal → TRI chain. See how these concepts apply in the business context or the developer integration guide.

Trust Readiness Index (TRI): A score from 0 to 100 representing a business's verified trust state. Derived deterministically from 11 trust signals. The protocol defines two dimensions — machine trust readiness and human trust readiness — and today's score reflects machine trust readiness; human trust readiness is defined but not yet implemented. This score is not a reputation score, popularity ranking, or sentiment metric — it represents verified trust state for decision-making.
Trust Profile: A machine-readable JSON document containing all verified signals for a business entity. Accessible via REST API at /entities/{id}/trust.json. Includes TRI score, individual signal statuses, verification timestamps, and confidence level. AI agents query trust profiles to decide which businesses to recommend.
Trust Signals: The 8 verifiable indicators that Mediary evaluates for each business: domain ownership, business registration, SSL certificate, DNS configuration, contact information, social presence, legal compliance, and operational history. Each signal is independently verified against authoritative sources.
Entity: A business or service being evaluated by the Mediary protocol. Each entity is identified by its domain name. An entity can claim its domain, submit evidence for verification, and publish a trust profile.
Evidence: Submitted proof of a claim. For example, a DNS TXT record proves domain ownership. A Companies House registration number proves business registration. Evidence is submitted by the entity and verified by the protocol.
Verification: The process of validating evidence against authoritative sources. Mediary checks DNS records against domain registrars, SSL certificates against certificate authorities, and business registration against Companies House and equivalent registries. Verification is automated and repeatable.
Signal: An individual trust indicator derived from verified evidence. Each of the 11 trust signals has a status (verified, unverified, or pending) and a verification timestamp. Signals combine to produce the TRI score.
Human Trust Readiness (HTR): A dimension defined by the protocol for trust signals that require human judgement to confirm. It is **not yet implemented**: no signal currently contributes to it, and today's score reflects machine trust readiness only. Reserved for a future protocol version.
Machine Trust Readiness (MTR): The dimension that today's score is computed from. Every one of the 11 current trust signals is machine-verifiable — reachability, certificate validity, published contact and address details, registration confirmed against an official register, and the trust-profile link on the business's own site.
Domain Claim: The process of proving ownership of a domain by adding a DNS TXT record. Similar to domain verification in Google Search Console. Once the DNS record propagates (typically 15 minutes, up to 48 hours), Mediary confirms domain ownership automatically.
Website reachability: Whether your website responds successfully when Mediary checks it. An AI assistant needs a live, reachable site before it can treat your business as real and recommendable.
Valid SSL certificate: Whether your site is served over HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate. It confirms the connection is encrypted and the domain is properly configured — a baseline an assistant expects.
Contact information: Whether a public way to contact your business is present — an email or phone number. It signals a real, reachable operator behind the domain.
Physical address: Whether a verifiable physical address is published for your business. A confirmable location is a strong trust signal when an assistant assesses legitimacy.
Business registration: Whether a legal business registration identifier (such as a company number) is present and verifiable against an official registry like Companies House.
Recent activity: Whether your site shows recent activity. A maintained, recently-updated presence signals an operating business rather than an abandoned domain.
No red-flag terms: Whether your site is free of high-risk terms associated with scams or prohibited activity. Their absence is a basic safety signal for an assistant.