@SignOfficial
I was following a "linkedAttestationId" earlier.
Expected it to resolve.
It didn’t.
Thought I pulled the wrong one.
Ran it again.
Same ID.
Still empty.
That didn’t make sense.
Felt like I was missing something obvious.
So I checked the registry directly.
Nothing there either.
Waited.
Tried again.
No change.
But the credential...
was fine.
It verified cleanly.
No errors.
No warnings.
That’s where it flipped.
The reference was missing.
The credential wasn’t.
So I tried another one.
Different attestation.
Same pattern.
"linkedAttestationId" set.
Nothing behind it.
No revert.
No failure.
No signal that anything was wrong.
That’s when I stopped chasing the record.
And started watching what actually gets checked.
The link never comes into it.
Verification doesn’t follow it.
Doesn’t wait for it.
Doesn’t care if it resolves.
The credential stands on its own.
What it points to...
never gets pulled in.
That’s when it clicked.
It wasn’t breaking.
It was being ignored.
Forward ghost.
A reference that exists...
without ever needing to resolve.
From the outside...
everything looks complete.
The credential verifies.
The structure holds.
But the connection...
isn’t enforced.
That’s where this gets risky.
A system sees the link...
and assumes continuity.
But nothing guarantees it.
Nothing proves it.
Nothing binds it.
Two credentials can look connected.
Nothing actually ties them together.
And because verification never checks...
there’s no signal that anything is missing.
$SIGN only matters if references like "linkedAttestationId" are required to resolve...
not just exist.
Because once links don’t need to hold...
structure stops meaning connection.
So the real question becomes this.
If a credential can point forward...
without anything there...
what exactly is the system treating as connected?