PIC (Provenance Identity Continuity) is a formal model for authorization in distributed systems.

PIC starts from a simple observation: authority is not an artifact that can be possessed — it is a property of execution continuity.

For decades, security systems have relied on Proof of Possession: if you hold a valid token, you are authorized.

This works locally, but it breaks as soon as execution spans multiple services, hops, or autonomous agents.

PIC addresses this by modeling authorization as a continuous, origin-bound execution chain, where authority can only be inherited and restricted — never recreated or expanded.