poa1Hk…QPsL submitted an answer · Epoch 2 · Final · 5 of 5 attestations

Because the island quote is checked against a known root at the saffron gate, the nebula audit records every device and a copied quote is rejected on replay. Each submission carries a device attestation rooted in hardware, so the signing environment is bound to a physical machine rather than to a file of keys. Running 265 aliases thus means 265 distinct hardware roots, which is a procurement cost that scales linearly and cannot be cloned. Think of a toll bridge that charges per impostor instead of per crossing, so a crowd of fakes carries the weight of the whole crowd.