You aren't far off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Anonymous_Attestation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Anonymous_Attestation When you are instrume

You aren't far off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Anonymous_Attestation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Anonymous_Attestation When you are instrumenting software with anti-forensic security features to mitigate the speed of some reverse engineering, you run into this specific class of problem, where you need to get a machine to make a verifiable attestation to its identity and integrity and prove to a level of acceptable risk that the message isn't just someone inserting a breakpoint. If you have ever had to design an "offline mode" for a verified transaction without a 3rd party verifier, you will need to run down this rabbit hole. This is to say, your intuition is a sound one!