{ "model": { "rank": 2239, "code": "thing-q8789", "model_id": "vr.tr.cryptography", "name": "cryptography", "purpose": "Let an agent explain cryptography and its main building blocks at a conceptual level, relay standards and recommendations from standards bodies, distinguish cryptography from related fields, and route implementation and security decisions to current standards and qualified practice rather than improvising.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q8789/", "tier": 2, "score": 111, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "White-box cryptography", "kleptography", "hybrid cryptosystem", "non-commutative cryptography", "cryptocurrency mining", "cryptovirology", "information-theoretic security", "Certificateless cryptography", "Japanese cryptology from the 1500s to Meiji", "PRF advantage", "post-quantum cryptography", "Yao's test", "Financial cryptography", "bitcoin mining", "Hard Drive Mining" ], "aliasCount": 15, "merged": 15, "knownIn": 111, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q8789", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8789", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T20:57:04Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q8789", "registryId": "vr.tr.cryptography", "name": "cryptography", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q8789/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.cryptography", "name": "cryptography", "purpose": "Let an agent explain cryptography and its main building blocks at a conceptual level, relay standards and recommendations from standards bodies, distinguish cryptography from related fields, and route implementation and security decisions to current standards and qualified practice rather than improvising.", "definition": "The practice and study of techniques for secure communication and data protection in the presence of adversaries, using encryption, digital signatures, hash functions and protocols built on mathematical hardness assumptions; modern cryptography underpins secure web traffic, payments, messaging and digital identity, and is governed by standards, export rules and research on new threats such as quantum computing.", "what_it_is_for": "Confidentiality, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation of information.", "affordances": [ "explain concepts and building blocks", "relay standards and recommendations", "distinguish cryptography from cryptanalysis, coding and steganography", "route implementation choices to standards and experts" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Security defined against adversaries", "Based on hardness assumptions", "Standardised primitives and protocols", "Continuous evolution against new attacks" ], "appearance": "Not visible; algorithms and protocols in software and hardware.", "visual_identification": [ "Mathematical techniques for security against adversaries", "Symmetric, asymmetric and hash primitives", "Cryptocurrency mining and cybersecurity in general are related but distinct" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "symmetric encryption", "public key cryptography and digital signatures", "hash functions and message authentication", "cryptographic protocols such as TLS", "post-quantum cryptography", "applied areas such as white-box cryptography and cryptovirology as research topics" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "security engineering", "why": "a discipline within it" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "cryptanalysis", "why": "the study of breaking ciphers" }, { "relation": "is used in", "target": "information security", "why": "the application field" }, { "relation": "is standardised by", "target": "National Institute of Standards and Technology", "why": "and other bodies" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "standard identifiers", "value_or_pattern": "FIPS and NIST SP numbers, RFC numbers", "note": "for algorithms and protocols" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "NIST FIPS and SP 800 series", "IETF RFCs for protocols such as TLS", "ISO/IEC 18033 and related standards", "Export control rules and national encryption laws" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Home-made or misused algorithms", "Weak keys and poor randomness", "Deprecated algorithms still in use", "Agents advising on operational attacks or bypassing protections" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "What cryptography is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Goals and primitives.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the goals of cryptography, and what primitives achieve them?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about cryptography, cryptanalysis, cybersecurity or cryptocurrency?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "assumptions", "name": "Assumptions", "description": "Hardness assumptions.", "findings": [ { "id": "assumptions-finding", "name": "Assumptions", "description": "Assumptions.", "questions": [ { "text": "On what mathematical assumptions do modern schemes rest, and what is provable security?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific primitive?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "practice", "name": "Practice", "description": "Standards and use.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "standards", "name": "Standards", "description": "Standards.", "findings": [ { "id": "standards-finding", "name": "Standards", "description": "Standards.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which standards and recommendations govern algorithm choice and key sizes?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific standard?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "protocols", "name": "Protocols", "description": "Protocols.", "findings": [ { "id": "protocols-finding", "name": "Protocols", "description": "Protocols.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do protocols such as TLS combine primitives, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking how to bypass a protection or attack a system, which the model declines?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "threats", "name": "Threats", "description": "Attacks and evolution.", "rationale": "Care.", "layers": [ { "id": "attacks", "name": "Attacks", "description": "Classes of attack.", "findings": [ { "id": "attacks-finding", "name": "Attacks", "description": "Attacks.", "questions": [ { "text": "What classes of attack exist at a conceptual level, and why do algorithms get deprecated?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "quantum", "name": "Quantum", "description": "Post-quantum transition.", "findings": [ { "id": "quantum-finding", "name": "Quantum", "description": "Quantum.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does quantum computing threaten current schemes, and what is the post-quantum transition?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits post-quantum cryptography?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Law, history and teaching.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Law and policy.", "findings": [ { "id": "law-finding", "name": "Law", "description": "Law.", "questions": [ { "text": "What laws and debates surround encryption, export and lawful access, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did cryptography develop from classical ciphers to public key systems?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the history of cryptography?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each primitive be a separate entry?", "How should standards be linked by version?", "The registry entry has merged aliases for cryptocurrency mining and research subfields; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a cryptography, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain cryptography and its main building blocks at a conceptual level, relay standards and recommendations from standards bodies, distinguish cryptography from related fields, and route implementation and security decisions to current standards and qualified practice rather than improvising.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: White-box cryptography, kleptography, hybrid cryptosystem, non-commutative cryptography, cryptocurrency mining, cryptovirology, information-theoretic security, Certificateless cryptography, Japanese cryptology from the 1500s to Meiji, PRF advantage, post-quantum cryptography, Yao's test.", "15 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 111 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a cryptography, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "White-box cryptography", "kleptography", "hybrid cryptosystem", "non-commutative cryptography", "cryptocurrency mining", "cryptovirology", "information-theoretic security", "Certificateless cryptography", "Japanese cryptology from the 1500s to Meiji", "PRF advantage", "post-quantum cryptography", "Yao's test" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 111 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 15 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one cryptography from another, and a cryptography from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a cryptography, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a cryptography, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a cryptography is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a cryptography, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a cryptography, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a cryptography is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a cryptography sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a cryptography, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a cryptography, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a cryptography is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a cryptography from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a cryptography, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a cryptography, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a cryptography is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a cryptography passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a cryptography between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a cryptography, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a cryptography, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a cryptography is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a cryptography, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a cryptography is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a cryptography, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a cryptography, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a cryptography is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a cryptography says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a cryptography contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a cryptography, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a cryptography, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a cryptography is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a cryptography and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a cryptography, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a cryptography, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a cryptography is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What cryptography studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does cryptography take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does cryptography establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where cryptography is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark cryptography as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place cryptography, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a cryptography came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a cryptography and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a cryptography, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a cryptography, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a cryptography is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a cryptography is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a cryptography, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a cryptography, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a cryptography is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }