Method SEAL
Hashes the canonical bytes
Sealing turns the whole record into a fingerprint. Change one character and the fingerprint no longer matches.
SEAL serialises the record to RFC 8785 canonical JSON and hashes those exact bytes with SHA-256. Canonicalisation is what makes the hash meaningful. Two systems that hold the same record compute the same digest, and a record whose content changes by a single character no longer matches its own identity.
The digest is the identity. Everything downstream — anchoring, verification, supersession — refers to it.
What is not published here
What is not published here
The wire-level detail of SEAL — field layout and test vectors — is issued to implementers under agreement. The method's rules above are published in full.