The firewall

Payment moves priority, never outcome.

DATOM sells speed and depth, never a result. These eight rules govern the boundary between who pays and what the record says. They are published here in full, and they are written verbatim into every engagement letter, so the promise a buyer signs is the same promise the public reads.

1. R1

   Payment moves priority, never outcome

   Paying moves a claim up the queue. It has no effect on the verdict, the grades, or the evidence. The result is whatever the independent review finds.

2. R2

   Public demand triggers verification too

   When enough people ask for a claim to be checked, it gets verified whether or not the claim's subject pays. Payment is one path in, not the only one.

3. R3

   Commissioning and sponsorship are disclosed

   Every record states who commissioned it and who sponsored it, or that no one did. The reader always knows who paid to move it.

4. R4

   The ledger is append-only

   An unfavorable result can never be withdrawn. It can only be appended to as new evidence arrives. Paying does not buy a takedown.

5. R5

   Classification and grading basis are printed

   Every record shows how its domain was classified and what field it was graded against, so the basis for the grade is auditable, not asserted.

6. R6

   Public sentiment carries zero weight

   How the public phrases a claim is measured, but it carries no weight in the verdict or the grades. The scorer has no read path to sentiment at all, enforced structurally by a permanent build gate.

7. R7

   Sentiment buyers get measurement, never influence

   Aggregate sentiment is a measurement product. A sentiment customer buys the measurement, never influence over a verdict, and never early access to an unpublished result.

8. R8

   Commissioned engagements are private by default

   A commissioned Confidence Report and its record publish only at the customer's choice. Exceptions: queue-demand and sponsored verifications always publish; once published, it stays published (R4). Privacy attaches to the engagement, never the claim: a private commission never blocks or delays public demand-triggered verification of the same claim.