There’s another, slightly less complicated method that the Grapevine uses to protect a data source. Suppose Alice wants the world to know that Cheech and Chong’s Chews are awesome, but she doesn’t want to reveal that she has used them herself, for fear of persecution. She can either attest that they are awesome with x % certainty, OR she can attest that HER GRAPEVINE TELLS HER they’re awesome with x % certainty, or she can say they’re awesome with x % certainty but just don’t mention whether she knows that from personal experience or is passing along second hand knowledge. The data format is the same either way. Plausible deniability is baked into the Grapevine protocol.