# TrustCarry Protocol v0.3 — Research Claim 034

**Sealed record identifier.** `kaal:research-claim:persona-protocol-v0.3:034`

**Author-affirmed research claim.** Validator independence must be demonstrated through disclosed operators, datasets, incentives, and governance structures rather than inferred from distinct validator names.

**Status.** Public research record. Not yet eligible for the published-source scholarly claim layer.

**Claim type.** condition

**Holds when.**

- Persona Protocol v0.3 as proposed; not an adopted standard

**Protocol.** TrustCarry Protocol v0.3, historically titled and aliased as Persona Protocol v0.3.

**Supporting passage from Persona Protocol v0.3.**

> Independence must be demonstrated, not assumed. Missing attestations do not become agreement. Multiple validators do not become independent merely because their names differ. Shared operators, datasets, incentives, or governance structures must be disclosed and reflected in a projection profile.

**Source locator.** Line 160 of the sealed v0.3 source.

**Source SHA-256.** `38efc43b80ab62426ca1f946114677afeda730bca30dda71dfd299223a6def7c`

**Provenance.** Direct author affirmation of exact batch `persona-protocol-v0.3-new-claims-2026-08-01`. The source manuscript remains an unpublished research draft.

**License.** CC BY 4.0; attribute Wulf A. Kaal and cite the canonical record URL.

**Limit.** This record is public and citable as an author-affirmed research proposition. It is not a claim extracted from a canonical published paper, is not an adopted standard, and does not alter the 5,033 scholarly claim layer.