Control Is the Operative Fact: A Three-Layer Model for Digital Identity, Transferable Records, and Platform-Independent Authority
The paper's most consequential governance claim is that proprietary electronic bill of lading platforms have not solved the control problem but merely relocated it: authority over a trade document now depends on a commercial operator's continued existence, goodwill, and terms rather than on any independently verifiable cryptographic state. OpenETR's Three-Layer Model is architecturally correct in separating correctness, control, and recognition as distinct concerns, but the paper has not yet specified who governs the governance layer itself, how the attestation and trust-registry infrastructure will be built and held to account, or what enforcement and redress mechanisms will operate when cryptographic control and legal recognition conflict.