Brand trust, made legible.
Methodology.
Edition v1.0 · Issued 2026.04 · Citable at the section level · Stable identifiers
Each principle is presented in two columns of equal authority. The technical specification on the left is the binding form. The plain-language translation on the right is the legible form. A reader may move between them without loss.
I.
Notary, not judge.
The institution attests to specific facts on behalf of specific parties. The attestation is bound to (a) a named, accountable signer, (b) a discrete and verifiable claim, and (c) a recorded timestamp. The institution does not rate quality, rank participants, or determine truth in contested matters.
Where a question of truth exists, AU-SVRN records what was claimed, by whom, and when, and leaves the adjudication to parties whose role it is. A registry entry is evidence, not verdict.
Operating brands inheriting this methodology may not extend it into rating, ranking, or adjudication without recourse to the parent's review process.
AU-SVRN says, on the record, that a specific person or supplier made a specific claim at a specific time. That is the entire job.
The institution does not say whether the claim is true in some larger sense, whether the work is good, or whether the supplier is trustworthy in general. Those are different questions; they belong to other parties: courts, critics, regulators, customers.
A mark is a record. It is not a verdict.
Last revised 2026.01.14 · /methodology/changelog#i
II.
Identity bound to claim.
Every attestation issued under AU-SVRN methodology binds an accountable identity to a discrete claim. The binding is recorded such that the identity, the claim, and the time of attestation are inseparable from the resulting mark.
For Humark, the binding is biometric and applies to a creator and a work. For PuraTrust, the binding is documentary and applies to a supplier and a lot. In both cases, the binding is the primitive; the mark is its public form.
An attestation that does not name an accountable party is, in this methodology's terms, not an attestation.
Every mark issued by AU-SVRN brands is tied to a specific person or supplier who is responsible for the claim being made. A mark that does not name who is on the hook for it is not a mark this institution will issue.
For Humark, the person is identified by their biometric signature. For PuraTrust, the supplier is identified by documented attribution.
Whoever is named on the mark is the one standing behind it.
Last revised 2026.01.14 · /methodology/changelog#ii
III.
Independence is structural, not declarative.
An operating brand's commercial model must be designed such that its revenue does not depend, in any structural sense, on the parties whose claims it attests to. This constraint is enforced at the parent's review of any new market entry, acquisition, or material business-model change.
PuraTrust does not accept placement fees from suppliers. Humark does not permit platform partners to alter or condition creator attestation. Future operating brands inherit this structural test as a precondition of belonging in the portfolio.
Where a structural conflict cannot be eliminated, the brand is declined. The decline is recorded under /record/refusals.
A trust brand whose income depends on the parties it judges is not a trust brand. AU-SVRN designs the way its brands make money so that they cannot be paid by the people they verify.
PuraTrust is not paid by the supplement makers it tests. Humark is not paid by the platforms it serves to soften what its marks say. If a future brand cannot pass this test, it does not enter the portfolio.
Saying you are independent is not the same as being independent. Independence is in the structure, or it is nowhere.
Last revised 2026.01.14 · /methodology/changelog#iii
- IV.Permanence over performance.
- V.Faster than regulators, more rigorous than influencers.
- VI.Transparency about limits.
- VII.Open standards over proprietary lock-in.
- VIII.Plain language as a discipline.
These principles bind the parent and, by inheritance, the operating brands. Where a brand's own methodology extends them, the extension is published in that brand's own documentation.