metaproofs
When a proof gets closed, a tiny permanent receipt appears in its place. That receipt is the metaproof. It's the proof of the proof. Get it?
Chapters 3 and 4 both ended the same way: the proof account closes, and something small gets left behind. Let's meet the something.
what a metaproof is
A metaproof is just another proof account, the smallest size, with three special settings baked in:
- It belongs to the vault. Its beneficiary is the protocol's vault address, not a person. That's how the program knows it's a receipt.
- It never expires. Its timer is set to the biggest number a computer can hold. The cleanup crew can never touch it.
- Its data is the attestation from the verify or expire call that made it. So the receipt lives at the address computed from that attestation, and anyone who knows the attestation can find the receipt.
So the full life of a proof reads like a story with a period at the end: someone proved a thing, someone handled it, and here's the permanent receipt saying so.
no receipts for receipts
Can you verify a metaproof? Yes. Anyone can. When you do, the vault gets the deposit back and the receipt account closes. But here's the clean part: closing a vault-owned proof does not mint another receipt. If it did, every receipt would spawn a receipt, forever, like standing between two mirrors. The program stops the loop at one.
metaproofs in this explorer
The proofs list shows both kinds: regular proofs and their receipts. Receipts are the ones whose beneficiary is the vault and whose expiry reads like the end of the universe. Click into any closed proof and the history section shows the whole chain: created, then verified or expired, with the receipt's address right there.