---
id: "hardman-authenticity-vs-veracity"
type: "paper"
type_label: "Papers and paper collections"
title: "Authenticity vs. Veracity"
maintainer: "Daniel Hardman"
authors:
  - "Daniel Hardman"
date: "2025-12-28"
year: 2025
reading_level: "intro"
reading_level_label: "Introductory"
reading_level_meaning: "no prior knowledge of the suite"
evidence: "informative"
evidence_meaning: "an author's paper, deck, tutorial or post explaining the suite"
status: "quiet"
status_meaning: "no change in six to eighteen months; still correct"
access: "public"
access_meaning: "anyone with the link"
topics:
  - "theory"
roles:
  - "researcher"
source_url: "https://dhh1128.github.io/papers/authenticity-vs-veracity.html"
source_license: null
source_license_note: null
found_on: "hardman-papers"
kerisse_credit: false
abstract_license: "CC BY 4.0"
abstract_license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
abstract_attribution: "KSKB, the KERISuite Knowledge Base (https://kskb.dev/)"
last_checked: "2026-10-15"
kskb_url: "https://kskb.dev/cards/hardman-authenticity-vs-veracity/"
kskb_app_url: "https://kskb.dev/#item/hardman-authenticity-vs-veracity"
kskb_record_url: "https://kskb.dev/data/kskb/resources/hardman-authenticity-vs-veracity"
kskb_markdown_url: "https://kskb.dev/export/cards/hardman-authenticity-vs-veracity.md"
---

# Authenticity vs. Veracity

A short 2025 analysis by Daniel Hardman distinguishing authenticity (truth of origin) from veracity (truth of content) in philosophy, law and digital identity, and arguing they must be treated as independent. It credits Samuel M. Smith and the KERI community for emphasizing the distinction in the KERI, ACDC and did:webs specifications, and notes that authenticity can be computed while veracity rests on reputation.

Labels: reading level Introductory; evidence informative (an author's paper, deck, tutorial or post explaining the suite).
Source: https://dhh1128.github.io/papers/authenticity-vs-veracity.html (license not recorded).
The abstract is KSKB's own text under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/; credit KSKB, the KERISuite Knowledge Base (https://kskb.dev/).