The Compute-Location Gate: Provenance-Class Routing of Identity Inference with Wire-Layer Refusal of Unconsented Provenance Classes

This memo specifies the compute-location gate: a mechanism by which a client and an identity-inference server negotiate, at the wire layer and before any inference is performed, the location at which an identity inference will compute, as a deterministic function of the provenance class of the input signal. Three provenance classes are distinguished. Active inference, initiated by the inferred-about principal, MAY compute server-side and produce a server-held identity vector. Passive aggregate observation over a cohort no smaller than a declared minimum MAY compute server-side but yields only a population-level observation that is not attributable to an individual. Passive individual observation is local-only: it is computed and retained on the device that observed it and is never transmitted to a server. The gate is enforced by consent-class matching and by a wire-layer refusal returned when a requested provenance class is not consented; it is not enforced by any cryptographic proof concerning data that was not used. The memo is Informational. The wire surface composes with the discovery mechanism of [MCPDNS], the handle namespace of [IDPRONOUNS], and the organisational policy substrate of [POLICYPROV]; no new transport is introduced.