Trust surface

Evidence standards

VAE is truth-first: provenance and uncertainty remain visible, and unsupported density is not fabricated.

Verified evidence

Evidence may come from governed transactions/use, outcomes, benchmarks, authoritative public sources or verified submissions, depending on the active category standard.

Reported evidence

Vendor or company-reported facts remain labeled as reported unless a separate verification process supports a stronger classification.

Disputed / insufficient

Contradictory or incomplete evidence is not silently promoted to verified truth.

Unavailable

When no authoritative value exists, VAE displays unavailable instead of estimating live users, revenue, rank history or other unsupported metrics.