A Node Operator’s View of Bonded Identity and Verified Job Receipts

The starting point

Illustrative flow: a node operator needs to connect completed AI work to the node that served it, the units billed and the earnings recorded. A hardware label alone does not establish that work occurred. The Spindle specification uses bonded node identity and signed receipts as the common references for this path.

The intended flow

The node signs a COSE receipt for each job. A verifier checks its signature, the job-to-billing match and token counts against the gateway. Sealed-lane nodes (in testing) attach attestation evidence. Metering applies the rate card to verified work, then an epoch builder records cumulative entitlement in an hourly Merkle root on Robinhood Chain.

Design outcome

The design outcome is a traceable path from node identity to signed work and an hourly receipt epoch. This is an explanation of the v1.1 architecture, not a deployed customer result. A receipt evidences execution on the measured stack; it does not prove the output was correct.