The original title is: "Signed execution receipts: a primer on why logs are not evidence"

Short summary

Application logs are operationally useful but structurally inadequate as evidence: they lack integrity, attribution, completeness, and independence. The article walks through why centralized logging, WORM storage, and hash chaining each solve only part of the problem. Signed execution receipts anchored to external transparency logs are presented as the solution that lets a sceptical outsider verify agent behavior without trusting the operator.

• •Logs fail structurally as evidence: mutable, self-attested, filtered, and not independently verifiable
• •Centralized logging, WORM storage, and hash chaining each solve only part of the trust problem
• •Signed execution receipts anchored to external transparency logs enable independent verification

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