Sovereign Validation Protocol (SOVP)

This document specifies the Sovereign Validation Protocol (SOVP), a protocol for cryptographic verification of publisher-provided identity metadata bound to DNS-anchored public keys. SOVP enables consuming agents and gateways to verify the origin and integrity of machine-readable data published at a domain prior to ingestion, allowing early rejection of unauthenticated data before body parsing occurs. The protocol defines data structures, cryptographic procedures, operational modes, and associated DNS and HTTP mechanisms.