# Admissibility Brief — Knox-Anchored Electronic Records *Attorney primer for authenticating Knox records under Federal Rules of Evidence 902(13) and 902(14).* **Prepared by:** Bonis Systems LLC (Wyoming), UEI R2BPJDC5CBA3, CAGE 1TSP2 **Document version:** 1.0 · 2026-04-19 **Audience:** counsel offering or challenging a Knox record as evidence in federal court or a state court that has adopted the federal rules substantially. --- ## 1. What a Knox record is A Knox record is an electronic record produced by the Knox Immutable Ledger — an append-only, SHA-256 hash-chained event log operated by Bonis Systems LLC. Each event: 1. Receives a deterministic SHA-256 hash computed over its canonical serialization. 2. Is chained to the immediately-preceding event via inclusion of the prior event's hash. 3. Is periodically aggregated (on an hourly cadence) into a Merkle tree whose root is published to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps. The net effect: any alteration to the record, the chain preceding it, or the chain following it, produces a cryptographic hash that will not match the committed value, and any such alteration is mathematically detectable by any third party using only public Bitcoin data. ## 2. The two applicable rules ### FRE 902(13) — Certified records generated by an electronic process or system > A record generated by an electronic process or system that produces an accurate result, as shown by a certification of a qualified person that complies with the certification requirements of Rule 902(11) or (12). The proponent must also meet the notice requirements of Rule 902(11). **Why Knox qualifies:** - The Knox system is an **electronic process or system** — not a document produced by a human. - The process **produces an accurate result** — the correctness of the process is described by a TLA+ formal specification that has been machine-checked. See `https://bonissystems.com/spec/`. - A **qualified person** — in the first instance, the records custodian of the offering party (see sample affidavit) or Bonis Systems itself — can certify the process's accuracy. ### FRE 902(14) — Certified data copied from an electronic device, storage medium, or file > Data copied from an electronic device, storage medium, or file, if authenticated by a process of digital identification, as shown by a certification of a qualified person that complies with the certification requirements of Rule 902(11) or (12). The proponent also must meet the notice requirements of Rule 902(11). **Why Knox qualifies:** - A Knox record copied out of the Knox system for introduction at trial **retains its SHA-256 fingerprint**, which matches the hash committed to Bitcoin. - The match between the record's hash and the Bitcoin-committed hash is a **process of digital identification** sufficient for FRE 902(14). ## 3. Typical foundation Counsel offering a Knox record should be prepared to establish: 1. **Who produced the record.** The operator is Bonis Systems LLC (Wyoming). The custodian of the offering party produces the record in the ordinary course. 2. **When it was anchored.** The Merkle anchor timestamp, committed to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps, establishes the earliest possible time at which the record existed. 3. **That it has not been altered.** Run `verify-knox-record.mjs` against the record. Attach the verification transcript to the authenticating affidavit. 4. **That the process is accurate.** Cite the TLA+ specification; optionally call an expert witness to walk a skeptical court through it. ## 4. Anticipating challenges ### Challenge: "The Knox system is proprietary — can we trust it?" **Response:** The Knox system is **not** a black box. Its correctness properties are described by a publicly-published TLA+ specification, and the verification script we provide runs independently of any Bonis Systems server. A skeptical adversary may download the specification, run the verification script on an air-gapped machine, and compare the result to the Bonis Systems API response. Any discrepancy would be a public refutation of the Bonis claim, and no such refutation has been made. ### Challenge: "Bonis Systems could have altered the record before anchoring." **Response:** The FRE 902 authentication establishes the record's state **after** anchoring, not before. Once the Merkle root is committed to Bitcoin, alteration becomes impossible. If the opposing party alleges pre-anchoring alteration, they must present evidence of the specific alteration; the cryptographic record is silent on pre-anchor events by construction, but the custodian of the offering party (under oath) testifies to the record's integrity at creation. ### Challenge: "Bitcoin isn't a reliable anchor." **Response:** The Bitcoin blockchain has continuously operated since 2009 and contains tens of thousands of blocks of publicly-witnessed history. Its security model — SHA-256 proof-of-work with ~900 exahash/s of globally-distributed mining capacity — is the most heavily-adversarial-tested cryptographic commitment system in existence. The bar an adversary must clear to alter a historical Bitcoin commitment is significantly higher than the bar they must clear to alter a paper document. ### Challenge: "The record's contents might be false even if the record is unaltered." **Response:** Correct. Knox proves **integrity** (the record has not been altered), not **truthfulness** (the underlying facts are accurate). The authenticating affidavit must be paired with substantive evidence that the record accurately reflects the real-world event. Knox narrows the factual dispute to the real-world event itself — it does not eliminate it. ## 5. Preservation and production checklist When a Knox record is likely to become evidence, counsel should: - **Preserve the original JSON record** (not a screenshot) — the SHA-256 hash depends on canonical serialization. - **Preserve the `.ots` OpenTimestamps proof file** — downloaded from `https://bonissystems.com/api/knox/anchors//ots`. - **Record the Bitcoin block height and time** at which the Merkle root was committed. - **Run the verification script on an air-gapped machine and preserve the transcript.** - **Download a copy of the TLA+ specification** from `https://bonissystems.com/spec/` on the date of preservation, to fix the specification version against later revisions. ## 6. Contact For authentication support (not legal advice), reach Bonis Systems at the contact information listed on `https://bonissystems.com`. --- *This document is provided as a starter for counsel. It does not constitute legal advice and has not been reviewed by an attorney on behalf of the reader. Counsel must independently evaluate admissibility in the applicable jurisdiction.*