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Data sovereignty & portability

Your machine's history is node-local — it lives on the node where it was created and isn't replicated across the fleet. That's a deliberate property: your data isn't scattered or copied without your say-so. But it raises a fair question — if I log into a different node, where's my stuff? Portability is the answer, and it falls straight out of how ZeqID works.

Identity makes it possible​

Because a ZeqID is deterministic — the same equation derives the same ZEQ7… on every node — you are literally the same identity everywhere, with no account-linking and no key exchange. That single fact is what lets any node act on your behalf across the lattice: it already knows who you are, so it can ask the others about you.

same equation  ⇒  same ZeqID on every node  ⇒  portable without linking\text{same equation} \;\Rightarrow\; \text{same ZeqID on every node} \;\Rightarrow\; \text{portable without linking}

How a pull works​

Log into any node and it can fan out to its siblings on your behalf:

Ask

The node you're on asks every sibling: "do you hold anything for this ZeqID?" — a peer-only, Ed25519-signed request over peer-manifest | zid | zeqond.

Aggregate

Each sibling returns a signed manifest of what it holds for you. The node collects them into one view — where your data lives, across the whole fleet.

Bring it here

You choose what to move. Nothing migrates silently — portability surfaces what exists and offers to bring it to the node you're on.

The peer requests are signed and verified between nodes — a node only answers a portability probe it can cryptographically attribute to a sibling, and the signature is scoped to a Zeqond so it can't be replayed later. Your ZeqID identifies you; the peer signatures keep the fan-out trustworthy.

Why this is sovereignty, not sync​

A replicated system copies your data everywhere by default and calls it availability. The framework does the opposite: your history stays put unless you move it, and the deterministic identity means you never lose access to it just because you signed in somewhere else. You hold the equation, so you hold the account, so you decide where the data goes.

  • ZeqID — the deterministic identity that makes portability possible.
  • Nodes and node-locality — why history stays on its home node.
  • Proofs — how a result stays verifiable wherever it travels.