Two participants answer different questions.
The photographer key can identify the source asset, claimed authorship, capture context, edit lineage, portfolio permissions, and rights the photographer is willing and able to license. The subject key can identify the depicted person and record approval or refusal for the proposed likeness use.
Neither key consumes the other. A photographer's attestation does not grant the subject's permission. A subject's attestation does not transfer the photographer's copyright. Keeping both statements distinct reduces the temptation to treat one participant as the sole owner of every layer.
An attestation is a versioned claim with evidence.
A useful attestation includes who made the statement, their role, the exact asset and proposed use, the text shown to them, the response, date, version, and supporting identity or agreement reference. Later changes should create a new version rather than edit the old statement in place.
The platform should be precise about assurance. An invited account, an electronic signature, a government-ID check, a witness, and an in-person review provide different evidence. None should be labeled “verified” without saying what process was actually completed.
Dual-Key is not complete rights clearance.
Both attestations can exist while required rights are still missing. A use may also depend on a release, copyright license, representation authority, exclusivity review, property or trademark clearance, sensitive-use approval, buyer terms, or the absence of a dispute hold.
The rights engine should therefore return reasons and evidence references, not only APPROVED or BLOCKED. A reviewer needs to see which layer passed, which remains unknown, and what change in the proposed use triggered a new review.
Provenance helps establish history, not truth by magic.
File hashes and signed provenance records can show whether data matches a known version and whether a recorded history appears intact. They do not prove that every underlying statement is accurate, that a person understood a contract, or that a license is enforceable.
That boundary is central to public verification: describe the checks completed and the evidence category, while preserving private records and human review for disputed or high-risk cases.