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Transparency: what is open, what is not

Our transparency is about how NelfePlay decides, not how the listener extracts the signal. That distinction is deliberate.

The trust boundary

RetroArch
   │  ▼
NelfeMemoryListener  - CLOSED · HOMOLOGATED ----------------
   reads memory, resolves addresses, computes score+counters,
   emits raw checkpoints
   │  ▼  normalized event { score, counters, frame, time, event }
Open protocol (this repo)  - PUBLIC ------------------------
   ticket · JCS canonicalization · passport · signature · verify · submit
The public code knows how to verify the continuity and consistency of these events; it does not know how they were obtained.

Why the listener is closed

Memory-reading logic is expensive know-how (one definition per game, re-validated on every core change). Opening it would hand it to competitors and help cheaters. We keep it closed - like the firmware of a measuring instrument.

What closure is NOT

Closure is not part of the security (Kerckhoffs' principle). The system's security rests only on the secrecy of the device signing key - never on secret rules. All rules, all checks, all refusal codes are public. If the listener code leaked tomorrow, the guarantee would not change by an inch: it comes from the open.

The honest limit

The open protocol will never mathematically prove the listener actually read memory. It proves, verifiably: the homologated build (known hash) was present, bound to the right process, unmodified during the session; the events were not altered after emission (signature); and the server applied the public rules.

Trust in the measurement therefore rests on a listener that is homologated, signed, versioned and audited - see Homologation.

What stays 100% public

Passport format · tickets · manifest · profile rules · allowed fingerprints · signature verification · submission states · ranking rules · OpenTimestamps-on-Bitcoin anchoring · refusal codes · the public verifier · the listener's homologation-suite results.

A promise we can keep

"NelfePlay's rules and verification are public and replayable. The memory measurement is done by a proprietary listener that is homologated, signed, versioned and audited."

Not "cheating is mathematically impossible" - that would be false for software running on the player's PC. But a precise, accountable guarantee beats an unverifiable promise.