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The transition to post-quantum cryptography introduces new design constraints for secure communication channels. These constraints extend beyond algorithm selection to include cryptographic agility, interoperability across heterogeneous environments, long-term confidentiality, and institutional auditability. This Pre-Standard defines an abstract model for a Post-Quantum Secure Channel (PQSC).

As Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST) systems transition from research environments into operational, institutional, and safety-critical contexts, trust becomes a systems property rather than a feature. Trust in this setting requires that decisions, plans, and actions produced by complex computational pipelines are deterministic, auditable, and attributable. This Reference Architecture defines a deterministic trust pipeline for QIST systems.

Secure communication handshakes form the foundation of trust in distributed systems. As cryptographic ecosystems transition toward post-quantum readiness, handshake mechanisms must satisfy a broader set of requirements than confidentiality and authentication alone. They must be interoperable, cryptographically agile, auditable, and capable of operating across heterogeneous trust environments. This Technical Note defines the QSIG Handshake Reference Architecture.

This Technical Note defines the lifecycle, versioning, and retraction framework governing cryptographic and security-related artifacts published by the QIST Foundation. The purpose of this document is to establish clear, auditable rules for how artifacts are created, reviewed, revised, superseded, and—when necessary—retracted. By formalizing these processes, QIST aims to preserve scientific integrity, ensure long-term citability, and reduce systemic risk arising from ambiguous or unmanaged publication practices in high-assurance domains.

As quantum-capable and autonomous systems mature, the limiting factor in their adoption is no longer raw capability, but trust. Trust in this context is not a matter of performance claims or theoretical security guarantees alone; it is the product of governance, auditability, and institutional accountability. This whitepaper examines governance and auditability as first-class design constraints for Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST) systems.