Acknowledgement

org.hypercerts.context.acknowledgement

Definition

An acknowledgement is a record expressing acceptance or rejection of a relationship. For example, a contributor might acknowledge their inclusion in an activity claim, or a funder might confirm a funding receipt.

Acknowledgements are created in the acknowledging actor's own repository, making them independently verifiable. Each acknowledgement references the record being acknowledged, specifies whether it's accepted or rejected, and can include an optional note explaining the decision.

This enables consent-based relationships in the hypercerts ecosystem. Rather than assuming that being listed as a contributor or funder implies agreement, acknowledgements make consent explicit and auditable. They also enable dispute resolution — if someone is incorrectly listed, they can create a rejection acknowledgement.

Use case: contributor acknowledges inclusion in an activity

Alice creates an activity claim about her research project and lists Einstein as a contributor. Einstein needs to confirm he actually participated — otherwise anyone could claim he worked on their project.

  1. Alice creates an org.hypercerts.claim.activity record on her PDS, listing Einstein in the contributors array
  2. Einstein sees he's been listed (via an indexer or notification)
  3. Einstein creates an org.hypercerts.context.acknowledgement on his own PDS with:
    • subject → strong reference to Alice's activity claim
    • acknowledged → true
    • comment → "Confirming my role as theoretical physics advisor"

If Einstein never actually contributed, he'd set acknowledged to false instead — creating a visible rejection that indexers and applications can surface. No more claiming Einstein co-authored your term paper.

Use case: funder confirms a funding receipt

A grant platform creates a funding receipt recording that Funder X contributed $5,000 to a project. Funder X wants to confirm the receipt is accurate.

  1. The platform creates an org.hypercerts.funding.receipt record
  2. Funder X creates an org.hypercerts.context.acknowledgement on their own PDS with:
    • subject → strong reference to the funding receipt
    • acknowledged → true
    • comment → "Confirmed — payment processed via our grants program"

If the amount or details were wrong, the funder sets acknowledged to false with a comment explaining the discrepancy.

Use case: rejecting an evaluation

A project lead disagrees with an evaluation of their work and wants to flag it.

  1. An evaluator creates an org.hypercerts.context.evaluation referencing the project's activity claim
  2. The project lead creates an acknowledgement with:
    • subject → strong reference to the evaluation
    • acknowledged → false
    • comment → "This evaluation references outdated data — see our updated measurements"

The rejection doesn't delete the evaluation — it creates a counter-signal that applications can use to present both sides.

For the full schema, see org.hypercerts.context.acknowledgement in the lexicon repo.