Why provenance, and why now
Software has converged on the SBOM as a baseline provenance artifact. Hardware — and aerospace hardware in particular — is starting to demand the same level of verifiable history for safety-critical components.
Architectural patterns
We examine three patterns for cryptographic provenance: signed event streams, anchored Merkle logs and registry-mediated attestations. Each is evaluated for tamper-evidence, supplier burden and integration with existing PLM and ERP systems.
Adoption path
Provenance succeeds when it is a byproduct of normal operations, not an additional reporting burden. We outline an adoption path that starts with high-risk component classes and scales as supplier tooling matures.
This article is a preview of forthcoming NASCII research. The full publication will be released as part of the 2026 research program.