Glossary

Position Attestation — Definition, How It Works, and Why It Matters for Track Records

A position attestation is a primary-source statement that a specific account held a specific position at a specific time. Definition, the typical sources, and how attestation interacts with a verified track record.

By NakedPnL Research·May 9, 2026·6 min read

TL;DR

A position attestation is a primary-source statement — typically from a venue, custodian, or on-chain record — that a specific account held a specific position at a specific time.
Attestation answers existence and ownership; it does not on its own answer performance, methodology, or completeness.
Verified track records combine position attestation (the underlying holdings exist) with NAV-level reconstruction and an append-only chain (the performance is reproducible).

Definition

A position attestation is a statement, made by an authoritative source, that a specific account held a specific position of a specific size at a specific moment. The authoritative source can be a regulated custodian, a centralised venue's API response, an on-chain record from a public blockchain, or a fund administrator's statement. The attestation answers a narrow question — 'does this position exist in this account at this time' — and is the foundation on which broader performance verification is built. Without attestation that the underlying positions exist, no amount of methodology rigour on top can produce a meaningful performance figure.

Typical sources of attestation

Centralised exchange API responses — Binance, Bybit, OKX, Coinbase Advanced, IBKR Flex Web Service, Kalshi REST API, and similar.
On-chain records — for venues like Polymarket, the position-level state is reconcilable against the chain via subgraph queries.
Custodian statements — prime brokers and fund administrators issue periodic position statements to clients.
Regulatory filings — Form 13F filings in the United States disclose institutional equity positions quarterly.
Auditor confirmations — independent CPAs perform position confirmations as part of statutory audit procedures.

What attestation establishes and what it does not

Attestation establishes existence and ownership at a specific moment. It does not establish completeness — a single attestation says nothing about positions in other accounts, and a snapshot says nothing about positions held five minutes earlier or later. It does not establish performance — a position existing today says nothing about how the account got to today. It does not establish methodology — knowing what is held does not say how the value of those holdings is being computed for reporting purposes. Each of those questions requires additional structure on top of the underlying attestation.

How NakedPnL uses position attestation

NakedPnL's daily snapshot at 23:55 UTC pulls the venue's complete account state — balances, positions, equity — through the read-only API key the trader registered. The raw response is canonicalised and SHA-256 hashed; the hash plus the canonical response is what the chain stores. The position attestation in this case is the venue's API response itself: a primary-source statement from the venue, recorded in an append-only chain, time-stamped against a Bitcoin block via OpenTimestamps. A reviewer who wants to confirm a specific position existed on a specific day can pull the canonical response from the chain bundle and observe the position there, with the venue's response cryptographically bound to the date the chain head was anchored.

For Polymarket positions, attestation is reinforced by reconciling the venue's REST response against the on-chain subgraph at lib/venues/polymarket/subgraph.ts and lib/venues/polymarket/reconcile.ts. The on-chain record is independent of Polymarket's REST API, so a reconciliation pass provides two independent attestations of the same underlying position state.

Limits of attestation

Attestation cannot solve account-coverage gaps. A trader who connects only some of their accounts has attestation for the connected ones and silence about the rest. The methodology guide on chain of custody for investment performance data covers the broader procedural issues. Attestation also cannot solve venue-side data quality: if the venue's reported NAV is wrong, the attestation accurately records the wrong number. The defence is venue diversity — connecting multiple independent venues makes a coordinated venue-side error implausible.

Verified track record — the four-property surface that builds on attestation plus computation, history, and methodology.
Net asset value (NAV) — the aggregated valuation of attested positions at the snapshot moment.
Content hash — the SHA-256 fingerprint of the canonicalised attestation response.
OpenTimestamps — the Bitcoin-anchoring protocol that binds the attestation date to a public timeline.

Frequently asked questions

Is a venue's API response a position attestation?

Yes, when interpreted correctly. The response is a primary-source statement from the venue about the account state at the response moment. Canonicalising and hashing it preserves the attestation in a tamper-evident form for later review.

What if the venue's API returns wrong data?

The attestation faithfully records what the venue returned. A coordinated venue-side error would propagate into the chain. The structural defence is venue diversity — a trader connected to several independent venues has attestation from each, and a coordinated multi-venue error is implausible. The methodology guide on chain of custody covers the procedural picture.

Does NakedPnL store full position-level history?

The daily snapshot captures the venue's full account state at 23:55 UTC, which typically includes positions, balances, and equity. The chain stores the canonicalised raw response, so position-level detail is preserved as part of the attestation rather than aggregated away.

How does attestation differ from verification?

Attestation is the existence layer — does this position exist in this account at this time. Verification is the layer above — does the published performance figure follow from the attested data using documented methodology. Both layers are required; neither replaces the other.

Are screenshots a form of attestation?

No. A screenshot is a rendering of a private app, not a primary-source statement preserved in a tamper-evident form. The methodology guide on why screenshot P&L is not evidence covers the structural reasons.

References