@techreport{das-protocols-candidate-act-finality-01,
    number =    {draft-das-protocols-candidate-act-finality-01},
    type =      {Internet-Draft},
    institution =   {Internet Engineering Task Force},
    publisher = {Internet Engineering Task Force},
    note =      {Work in Progress},
    url =       {https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-das-protocols-candidate-act-finality/01/},
    author =    {Sangam Das},
    title =     {{Stopping AI Hallucinations and Unsafe Acts from Becoming Real-World Consequences (DAS Protocols)}},
    pagetotal = 34,
    year =      2026,
    month =     sep,
    day =       8,
    abstract =  {The internet has protocols for moving data, securing channels, naming hosts, and delegating identity. It has no protocol for the moment a machine-generated instruction becomes a real-world act. As AI systems begin to move money, change databases, reconfigure networks, send communications, and control physical systems, that missing boundary becomes a structural risk. Today an AI can hallucinate a fact, cite a stale source, invent a tool argument, or propose an unsafe agentic step — and still reach an effectuation interface. Model approval is not output approval. Workflow approval is not consequence approval. Moderation, access control, TEEs, simulation, and post-hoc audit all leave the final transition from computation to consequence under-protected. This document specifies the DAS Protocols Candidate-Act Finality architecture. Every effect-capable AI output is first converted into a non-effective Candidate Act. The Candidate Act stays non-effective until a Protected Enforcement Domain has validated output, provenance, factual support, consequence, jurisdiction, epoch, and sink predicates. Only then is a scoped non-bearer capability or Execution Handle released and verified at a Finality Sink. In advanced forms the Finality Sink is cryptographically unable to complete the act unless the handle supplies the missing execution material. The architecture supports graduated and escalated conditional finality so that elevated-risk but necessary acts can still proceed under stricter controls. The document elaborates the problem space, compares the approach with representative existing techniques, describes the base and advanced finality paths, and provides JSON Schema definitions for the core protected objects. Related Indian provisional applications and PCT filings are listed in the final appendix.},
}