Abstract

A self-serialized digital document — a single HTML file, PDF, or archive — sometimes must embed, within its own byte stream, three mutually dependent cryptographic elements: a hybrid digital signature combining a classical algorithm (ECDSA P-256) with a post-quantum algorithm (ML-DSA-65, FIPS 204); a self-referential SHA-256 integrity digest computed over the document's own serialization; and a blockchain timestamp anchor reference (Bitcoin, Ethereum) whose value becomes known only after the document has been hashed and submitted for anchoring. Embedding all three inside one serialized body creates a circular dependency that naive ordering cannot resolve: signatures must cover content that sits next to the digest and anchor, the digest must cover the signatures and its own region, and the anchor is derived from a hash of the document yet written back into it. This disclosure describes a canonical multi-zone neutralization method: each mutable zone receives a fixed-width, length-preserving placeholder, and each zone is excluded from the coverage of every digest computed before it, collapsing the circularity to a single deterministic fixed point that an offline verifier recomputes identically, with no server, PKI, or network access. Individual building blocks — hybrid post-quantum signatures, self-verifying documents, long-term signature validation, and blockchain timestamping — are acknowledged prior art. The contribution disclosed is narrowly the canonical neutralization ordering enabling the three-zone coexistence, together with its generalizations to n zones, other signature algorithms (SLH-DSA, Falcon), and other container formats.

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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