Connect the decision to the designated person.
The institution defines which human authority is required. Presence Key helps establish that the expected person participates at the specified boundary.
Presence / 01 · Human authority
Presence
Key.
The physical interface for establishing the human behind a consequential authority.
01 / FROM IDENTITY TO AUTHORITY
Authentication can identify an operator.
Authority is a separate question.
A physical checkpoint for
human participation.
Presence Key is designed for moments where a digital credential alone is not a sufficient basis for a consequential decision.
Verify only where higher assurance matters.
Presence does not need to sit in every interaction. Policy calls for it at selected access, approval, recovery or control events.
Return the minimum signal the decision requires.
The result is constrained to its purpose. It does not expose protected physical data or turn the Key into a general-purpose identity database.
From institutional policy
to accountable action.
The public sequence explains the control boundary. Protected construction and verification implementation remain confidential.
Set the authority.
Specify the person, action, context and assurance policy.
Establish the relationship.
Govern the connection between the expected person and the institutional record.
Bring physical presence.
The designated human presents the Key at the relevant decision boundary.
Return a narrow result.
An authorized point evaluates the expected condition and returns a bounded signal.
Let policy act.
The receiving system permits, denies, records or escalates.
Designed to be present.
Not performative.
The images below depict prototype and design studies showing potential ways Presence Key may be worn, carried or presented. Final deployment form depends on assurance level, validation and operating environment.
One boundary.
Different consequences.
Presence Key is most relevant where accepting the wrong human authority produces material, operational or public consequence.
Exceptional transactions.
Require the expected accountable officer before treasury release, mandate change, privileged recovery or another unusually consequential action proceeds.
Human authority before autonomous action.
Create an explicit physical checkpoint before an intelligent system executes a high-impact external action under delegated authority.
Sensitive environments and control paths.
Add physical participation to selected access, maintenance, administrative or emergency-recovery boundaries.
Accountable command and handoff.
Strengthen the connection between a designated person, the relevant operating context and a consequential instruction.
06 / EXPLICIT BOUNDARIESStrong claims require
Strong claims require
narrow claims.
Presence Key supports a defined verification question. It does not decide whether an action is lawful, appropriate or safe; it does not replace institutional identity, authorization or accountability systems.
PRESENCE KEY CAN INFORM
Whether the expected physical participation condition was satisfied at the defined boundary.
THE INSTITUTION STILL DECIDES
Who holds authority, which action is permitted, what exceptions apply and how the event is recorded.
CONTROLLED UNDER NDA
Architecture, construction, validation methods, performance characteristics and adversarial evaluation.
Inform existing systems.
Do not create another silo.
Presence Key is intended to deliver bounded verification outputs to the infrastructure institutions already use.
Identity and access
IAM, physical access and privileged-administration policy.
Transactions
Approval, recovery, mandate and settlement controls.
AI control
Human-in-the-loop and human-on-the-loop execution gates.
Operations
Maintenance, handoff, exception and mission workflows.
Start with the decision
that cannot accept the wrong person.
4SI works with selected institutions to map the authority boundary, threat model, integration path and limits before deployment.