A computer-implemented authority binding system for a digital document, the system comprising:
- one or more user devices, each comprising a processor and a memory storing instructions, configured to display a malleable representation of the digital document and to transmit interactions with the digital document over a network;
- at least one backend server comprising one or more processors and one or more memories storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the at least one backend server to implement:
- a document entity configured to represent the digital document as a single canonical identity that persists across time;
- a temporal state model, executed on the at least one backend server and in communication with the document entity over the network, configured to receive the digital document from the document entity, receive a time output from a clock, and bind an authoritative state of the digital document to the time output by incorporating the time output as a first-class enforceable primitive directly into a structural model of the digital document, wherein the authoritative state is a single authoritative state of the digital document at any moment in time;
- an authority control layer, executed on the at least one backend server, configured to receive an authority signal from an authorized cryptographic key and to govern the authoritative state of the digital document by a plurality of time-bound lifecycle state transitions;
- a lifecycle state machine, executed on the at least one backend server and in communication with the authority control layer, configured to structurally enforce the plurality of time-bound lifecycle state transitions of the digital document, wherein the lifecycle state transitions include transitions between a malleable state in which the digital document is editable by the one or more user devices, a fixed state in which the digital document is preserved at a specific moment in time, and an absolute state in which the digital document is permanently finalized;
- a resolution engine, executed on the at least one backend server and in communication with the lifecycle state machine and the temporal state model, configured to close a plurality of temporal windows of mutability of the digital document in response to the authority signal being received from the authorized cryptographic key in order to execute the plurality of time-bound lifecycle state transitions and to record corresponding time coordinates as structural boundaries in the temporal state model;
- and
- a temporal query interface, executed on the at least one backend server and in communication with the temporal state model and a storage layer, configured to resolve requests to access the digital document received from the one or more user devices by reference to the canonical identity and the time coordinates generated from the time output when the plurality of temporal windows of mutability have been closed by the resolution engine,
- wherein the one or more user devices are configured to transmit user interactions and authority signals over the network to the backend server and to receive authoritative document states from the backend server via the temporal query interface, such that the document entity, the temporal state model, the authority control layer, the lifecycle state machine, the resolution engine, and the temporal query interface operate together with the one or more user devices as a unified system that forms a closed control loop to maintain only a single authoritative state of the digital document at any given moment in time, with all historical states remaining addressable via the canonical identity and the time coordinates without binding the authoritative state by any of a number of version numbers of the digital document,
- wherein the backend server, via the resolution engine and the lifecycle state machine, prevents the one or more user devices from displaying at least one of non-authoritative divergent states, local copies, forks, and continued editable representations of the digital document when the plurality of temporal windows of mutability have been closed, and
- wherein the system is agnostic to storage such that time and authority are enforceable primitives of the digital document, and such that the one or more user devices are prevented from maintaining mutable representations of the digital document outside of the authority-controlled closed control loop enforced by the backend server.