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US-20260128894-A1 - HARDWARE-ENFORCED IDENTITY GOVERNANCE ENGINE

US20260128894A1US 20260128894 A1US20260128894 A1US 20260128894A1US-20260128894-A1

Abstract

A hardware-enforced identity governance engine maintains an identity confidence state within trusted execution environments and enforces that state as a pre-computational prerequisite to influence forecasting and trust-weighted governance. The system incorporates behavioral entropy analysis, context-aware decay, recursive refresh using zero-knowledge proofs, and temporal immutability to prevent invalid authority states. Influence forecasts and governance outputs cannot be generated unless identity validity is cryptographically confirmed.

Inventors

  • George William Bickerstaff, III

Assignees

  • George William Bickerstaff, III

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20251230

Claims (9)

  1. 1 . An adaptive identity governance system comprising: a trusted execution environment; an identity confidence state engine maintaining a persistent identity confidence state; a policy engine defining identity thresholds based on action intent; and a hardware-locked pre-computational gate preventing generation of influence forecasts as defined in U.S. Publication No. US-2025-0392470-A1 and trust-weighted governance outputs as defined in U.S. Publication No. US-2025-0391219-A1 unless identity confidence thresholds are satisfied.
  2. 2 . A method for governing influence and trust-weighted decisions comprising: validating identity within a trusted execution environment; maintaining an identity confidence state using adaptive decay and recursive refresh; evaluating action intent; and blocking generation of governance computation unless identity validity is confirmed.
  3. 3 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to perform the method of claim 2 .
  4. 4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein recursive refresh uses zero-knowledge proofs.
  5. 5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein behavioral entropy differentiates human and autonomous agents.
  6. 6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein identity confidence decay is context-aware.
  7. 7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein historical identity states exhibit temporal immutability.
  8. 8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is ledger-agnostic.
  9. 9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein governance outputs are auditable.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to secure digital identity systems and computational governance architectures. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for maintaining an identity confidence state within hardware-isolated execution environments and enforcing that state as a hardware-locked, pre-computational prerequisite to influence forecasting, trust-weighted governance, and compliance execution in distributed computing systems. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Modern digital platforms increasingly allocate authority, access, and economic value using influence scores, reputation metrics, or trust-weighted voting rather than static credentials. U.S. Publication No. US-2025-0392470-A1 discloses systems for forecasting influence as a dynamic, time-varying signal derived from behavioral and network inputs. U.S. Publication No. US-2025-0391219-A1 discloses governance systems that weight decisions based on trust or influence metrics. Existing systems typically treat identity verification as static, external, or peripheral to governance computation. As a result, influence forecasts and governance outputs may be generated using stale, compromised, automated, or invalid identities. This produces unauthorized authority states, governance instability, and regulatory exposure. These failures arise from a technical limitation in which identity validation is not enforced as a mandatory prerequisite to computation. Without a pre-computational identity constraint, distributed systems remain vulnerable to Sybil attacks, autonomous AI agent swarms, identity drift, and compliance failures. There is therefore a need for a technical solution that enforces identity validity at the hardware level before governance computation is permitted to occur. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a hardware-enforced identity governance engine. The system continuously evaluates an identity confidence state derived from heterogeneous attestations, behavioral entropy analysis, context-aware decay, and recursive validation logic. The identity confidence state is maintained as a persistent, versioned computational object within a trusted execution environment. A hardware-locked pre-computational gate prevents the generation of influence forecasts or trust-weighted governance outputs unless identity confidence thresholds are satisfied. Influence forecasts computed according to U.S. Publication No. US-2025-0392470-A1 and trust-weighted governance outputs computed according to U.S. Publication No. US-2025-0391219-A1 are explicitly bound to this engine as mandatory computational prerequisites. This binding creates a secure, auditable, and regulator-ready governance foundation. DEFINITIONS Action Intent: A contextual classification of a requested operation indicating purpose, risk level, and governance impact. Adaptive Decay: A variable reduction of identity confidence over time based on action intent, contextual risk, or policy thresholds. Attestation Source: Any cryptographic, biometric, institutional, device-based, or credential-based input used to establish identity validity. Behavioral Entropy: Quantitative measures of non-deterministic behavior including interaction variance, timing irregularity, or input dynamics. Governance Output: Any computed result affecting authority, access rights, voting weight, compliance eligibility, or influence allocation. Hardware-Locked Pre-Computational Gate: A security barrier enforced within a trusted execution environment that prevents generation of governance outputs unless identity criteria are satisfied. Identity Confidence State: A persistent, versioned computational object representing identity validity based on attestations, decay, recursive refresh, and policy evaluation. Recursive Refresh: A process whereby newly validated high-confidence attestations reconcile and repair prior provisional trust states. Temporal Immutability: A property ensuring that historical identity states remain mathematically consistent even as current identity confidence states are updated. Trusted Execution Environment (TEE): A hardware-isolated execution environment including Intel SGX, AWS Nitro Enclaves, Apple Secure Enclave, AMD SEV, or functionally equivalent technologies. Trust-Weighted Governance: Decision-making or voting mechanisms that allocate authority proportionally based on trust or identity confidence. Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP): A cryptographic method enabling verification of identity-related claims without disclosure of underlying private data. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1—Hardware-Enforced Identity Architecture FIG. 1 illustrates the overall system architecture of the hardware-enforced identity governance engine. Identity processing is confined to hardware-isolated execution environments to prevent tampering, inspection, or bypass of identity validation logic. Governance computation is inaccessible unless identity validation i