Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about EDN's trust infrastructure platform, industry verticals, remote notarization, apostille facilitation, estate and trust administration, healthcare record security, corporate governance, and life sciences document workflows.
Is EDN exclusively a Remote Online Notarization (RON) platform?
No. EDN is a transaction orchestration and trust infrastructure platform. While we stabilize and secure RON and IPEN environments, our core cryptographic wrapping and identity continuity layers are designed to protect and verify any high-value, highly regulated digital transaction across the legal, financial, life sciences, and healthcare sectors.
What is EDN's "Sovereign Trust Infrastructure" and how does it work?
EDN wraps your existing document and notarization workflows with a post-quantum cryptographic layer — combining SPHINCS+ (NIST FIPS 205) digital signatures, hardware-backed key custody via FIPS 140-2 HSMs, and Ethereum blockchain anchoring. The result is a mathematically verifiable, tamper-evident record that cannot be forged or invalidated — even by a future quantum computer. EDN sits underneath your existing RON, IPEN, or document management system as a horizontal trust layer, not a replacement for it.
What is the "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" (HNDL) threat?
HNDL is an active threat strategy where adversaries intercept and archive encrypted documents today, intending to decrypt them once sufficiently powerful quantum computers are available. For documents with long operative lifespans — wills, trusts, clinical trial records, M&A closing packages, real estate deeds — the document may be cryptographically compromised before its legal purpose is fulfilled. EDN's post-quantum signatures are mathematically resistant to this attack vector, protecting your records from a failure mode that cannot be remediated after the fact.
Does EDN replace existing RON or IPEN platforms?
No. EDN functions as an ecosystem orchestration layer, not a competing RON or IPEN provider. EDN integrates with and enhances existing platforms — including PROOF/Notarize.com — by adding post-quantum cryptographic signing, blockchain anchoring, and hardware key custody as a sovereign security wrapper. Title companies, attorneys, and FinTech platforms can deploy EDN alongside their existing RON infrastructure without replacing it.
What post-quantum cryptographic standards does EDN use?
All document signatures use SPHINCS+ (SLH-DSA), standardized by NIST as FIPS 205 in August 2024. This is a stateless hash-based signature scheme whose security rests on SHA-256 collision resistance — a property not threatened by quantum algorithms. Signing keys are generated inside and never leave a FIPS 140-2 validated Hardware Security Module (HSM). Every signed document is also anchored to the Ethereum blockchain, providing a permanent, publicly verifiable timestamp independent of EDN's own infrastructure.
How does EDN serve estate and trust attorneys?
EDN secures wills, living trusts, revocable and irrevocable trust instruments, and powers of attorney against multi-decadal cryptographic decay. A trust document executed today with classical ECDSA or RSA-2048 signatures may be unverifiable 20–30 years from now — well within the document's operative lifespan for multi-generational asset transfers. EDN's SPHINCS+ signatures ensure mathematical integrity verification remains absolute for 50+ years, protecting estates and beneficiaries from future computational vulnerabilities.
Read the full guide →Does EDN support FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance for life sciences and pharmaceutical organizations?
Yes. EDN serves as a neutral Transaction Continuity Layer for contract research organizations (CROs), pharmaceutical sponsors, and regulatory teams coordinating document workflows across labs, legal departments, and regulatory bodies. Our audit trail, tamper-evidence controls, and identity verification architecture are aligned with the electronic records and signature requirements of FDA 21 CFR Part 11. EDN mitigates platform downtime risks during critical drug validation filings and patent submissions by providing a sovereign backup signing layer that operates independently of any single vendor.
How does EDN support corporate governance and M&A transactions?
EDN provides Unified Identity and Credential Continuity across fragmented legal and banking systems — enabling cross-platform orchestration for board resolutions, intellectual property assignments, and fast-moving merger and acquisition closings. For M&A transactions involving multiple jurisdictions, counterparties, and document platforms, EDN acts as the neutral cryptographic anchor that ensures every executed instrument is tamper-evident, time-stamped, and quantum-resistant regardless of which platform originated it.
How does EDN handle healthcare document workflows?
EDN manages patient consent records, healthcare governance documents, and related workflows under a Stateless 24-Hour Purge Policy. Our biometric identity vetting is entirely stateless. EDN utilizes zero-persistence processing pipelines where biometric identifiers are strictly processed in-memory for instant verification and permanently purged within 24 hours, adhering to Washington MHMDA and SOC 2 Type 2 privacy standards. What remains is only the immutable cryptographic validation record: the SPHINCS+ signature and blockchain anchor. This architecture directly supports data minimization obligations, including alignment with Washington State's My Health My Data Act (MHMDA).
Can EDN handle cross-border corporate and legal transactions?
Yes. EDN is designed for transactions that span jurisdictions, time zones, and document platforms. International corporate counterparties and global legal teams can all execute and notarize US-governed instruments remotely. EDN's identity continuity layer maintains credential validity across platforms, and the blockchain anchor provides a jurisdiction-neutral proof of execution that is verifiable by any party without relying on EDN's continued operation.
Can I notarize US documents while living in another country?
Yes. Remote online notarization (RON) allows US citizens living or traveling abroad to notarize US documents from any device with a camera and internet connection. No US embassy or consulate visit is required. We serve clients in Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and worldwide.
Read the full guide →Is remote online notarization legally valid?
Yes. Washington State authorizes remote online notarization under RCW 42.45. RON is recognized across all US states and many international jurisdictions. All notarizations use the PROOF platform, producing tamper-evident, court-admissible documents with a full audit trail.
What documents can be notarized remotely?
Most notarizable documents can be handled remotely: powers of attorney, wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, real estate closing documents, loan documents, affidavits, business contracts, apostille-ready documents, board resolutions, intellectual property assignments, clinical trial authorization documents, and DAO or blockchain agreements.
What is an apostille and when do I need one?
An apostille is an official government certification that authenticates a US document for use in countries that are parties to the Hague Apostille Convention. You need one when presenting a US document — such as a power of attorney, birth certificate, marriage certificate, or educational diploma — to a foreign government or institution.
How quickly can documents be notarized?
On-demand 24/7 notarization is available through our Notarize.com partnership. Concierge sessions — including estate and trust administration, apostille facilitation, corporate governance, M&A closings, and clinical document workflows — are typically available same-day or next-day.
Do you work with estate and trust attorneys?
Yes. We partner with estate and trust attorneys to notarize client documents remotely — including clients who are overseas, homebound, or otherwise unable to appear in person. We handle all coordination so the attorney can focus on the legal work. Our post-quantum signing layer also ensures the executed documents remain cryptographically verifiable across the full lifespan of the estate.
What states recognize remote online notarization?
All 50 US states either authorize RON directly or accept notarizations performed under another state's RON law. Washington State RON law (RCW 42.45) authorizes Executive Digital Notary to serve clients and counterparties in any state.