Verification is the mechanism that makes certification useful to third parties. Any buyer, regulator, or user can verify an agent's certification status without contacting Borealis - by querying the public /v1/verify/:agentId endpoint or checking Hedera HCS topics directly. Verification returns score, rating, certification history, and Hedera transaction IDs.

Certification without independent verification is trust-on-faith. The ability to verify independently - without relying on the certifier's word - is what makes the Trust Badge meaningful. Immutable Hedera anchoring means verification results cannot be manipulated.

The public verification endpoint /v1/verify/:agentId returns score, credit rating, certification timestamp, and Hedera transaction IDs for every certified agent. No authentication required. Verification results are public by design - identical regardless of who queries.