An Open Standard for Verified Human Identity and Content Provenance on the Internet
Whitepaper, Version 1.0 (Third Printing)
By Dinesh Mendhe for The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc.
Published June 16, 2026, 140 pages, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Read or download #
Choose any format. The PDF is the recommended canonical citation source.
What the whitepaper covers #
Eleven Parts and twelve Appendices setting out the protocol's identity layer (TIP-ID), content provenance layer (TIP-CONTENT with CNA-2.2), and reputation layer (TIP-TRUST).Post-quantum cryptography from genesis · ML-DSA-65 (FIPS 204), ML-KEM-768 (FIPS 203), SLH-DSA (FIPS 205).Federated DAG architecture· ten Founding Node Operators in four jurisdictions, comprising seven signed and three in accession at the date of publication.AI Trust Council governance· independent multi-stakeholder body, Charter-ratified, convened on May 3, 2026.** Regulatory alignment**· EU AI Act (Articles 3, 5, 50, 56, 95), GDPR, DSA, eIDAS 2.0, NIS2 Directive, Cyber Resilience Act, Council of Europe Framework Convention on AI, and corresponding instruments in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and India.Article 95(3) of the EU AI Act· multi-stakeholder code-of-conduct framing.** TIPCL-1.0 licensing**· free for individuals, nonprofits, educational institutions, government entities, and journalism organisations · nine-tier commercial schedule for revenue-bearing deployments.
Permanent record #
This whitepaper is permanently archived on Zenodo (operated by CERN) with the following persistent identifiers:
- Version DOI (this printing): 10.5281/zenodo.20722378 - Concept DOI (always resolves to the latest printing): 10.5281/zenodo.20722377 - Zenodo record: zenodo.org/records/20722378 - Author ORCID: 0000-0003-1158-3259
Suggested citation #
Trust Identity Protocol (TIP): An Open Standard for Verified Human Identity and Content Provenance on the Internet(1.0). The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20722378
Trust Identity Protocol (TIP): An Open Standard for Verified Human Identity and Content Provenance on the Internet. Version 1.0. Wilmington, DE: The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20722378.
@techreport{mendhe2026tip,
author = {Mendhe, Dinesh},
title = {Trust Identity Protocol (TIP): An Open Standard for Verified Human Identity and Content Provenance on the Internet},
institution = {The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc.},
year = {2026},
month = {6},
version = {1.0},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20722378},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20722378},
}
Document status #
Version 1.0, third printing. Published June 16, 2026. Original publication June 4, 2026. Next review January 2027, concurrent with the inaugural AI Trust Council annual transparency report.
Errata may be reported to whitepaper-errata@theailab.org and are published at theailab.org/whitepaper/errata.
License #
This whitepaper is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. Implementations of the technical framework are licensed under TIPCL-1.0.
Frequently asked questions #
What is the Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) Whitepaper?
The Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) Whitepaper, Version 1.0 is the canonical 140-page open specification of the Trust Identity Protocol, an open standard for verified human identity and content provenance on the internet. It is authored by Dinesh Mendhe and published by The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc. The whitepaper is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and is permanently archived on Zenodo (operated by CERN) under DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20722378.
Who is the author of the TIP Protocol Whitepaper?
Dinesh Mendhe is the author. He is the Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive of The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc., a Delaware C-Corporation. His ORCID iD is 0000-0003-1158-3259 and his Wikidata identifier is Q139715509.
How do I cite the TIP Protocol Whitepaper?
Mendhe, D. (2026). Trust Identity Protocol (TIP): An Open Standard for Verified Human Identity and Content Provenance on the Internet (1.0). The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20722378
What cryptographic primitives does TIP Protocol use?
TIP Protocol is post-quantum from genesis. It uses NIST-standardized primitives: ML-DSA-65 (FIPS 204) for digital signatures, ML-KEM-768 (FIPS 203) for key encapsulation, and SLH-DSA (FIPS 205) for long-term archival hash-based signatures. No future post-quantum migration is required because the protocol was designed against these standards from the first commit.
How does TIP Protocol relate to the EU AI Act?
TIP Protocol is designed against EU AI Act Articles 50, 56, and 95. Article 50 transparency obligations (mandatory AI content disclosure) become enforceable on August 2, 2026. TIP provides a working open-source software substrate that satisfies the labelling, disclosure, and audit trail requirements. The AI Trust Council, the body that stewards TIP, was convened on May 3, 2026 against the multi-stakeholder framework of Article 95(3).
What is the license for the TIP Protocol Whitepaper?
The whitepaper specification is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). The reference implementations are licensed under TIPCL-1.0, with self-executing conversion to Apache 2.0 on January 1, 2031.
Who is on the AI Trust Council?
The AI Trust Council is an independent multi-stakeholder body convened May 3, 2026 under a written Charter ratified by the sole director of The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc. The Council Chair is Joshua D. Baron, President and Founder of Baron's EdTech Consulting and former Senior Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Council Members include senior academics, security professionals, regulators, and institutional leaders from multiple jurisdictions. The full roster is published at theailab.org/ai-trust-council.
What are TIP-ID, TIP-CONTENT, and TIP-TRUST?
TIP Protocol has three architectural layers. TIP-ID is the identity layer: a real person obtains a verified TIP-ID from an accredited Verification Provider after a four-step biometric verification process. TIP-CONTENT is the content provenance layer: any unit of digital content is canonically normalised under CNA-2.2 and bound to a Content TIP ID that records the author, the moment of publication, and the origin code (Original Human, AI-Assisted, AI-Generated, Mixed). TIP-TRUST is the reputation layer: a five-tier Trust Score (HIGHLY_TRUSTED, TRUSTED, REVIEW_ADVISED, LOW_TRUST, NOT_TRUSTED) reflects the operational record of identity holders and content creators over time.
Where can I download the TIP Protocol Whitepaper PDF?
The PDF is available at https://theailab.org/whitepaper/TIP_Protocol_Whitepaper_v1_0.pdf (760 KB, 140 pages). HTML, EPUB, and DOCX formats are also available at the same path. The whitepaper is permanently archived on Zenodo at https://zenodo.org/records/20722378.