---
title: "Reading 'formally verified' as unconditional"
description: "A project advertises formal verification and the claim is real but scoped — bounded by stated hypotheses, covering some components and not others."
type: "failure-mode"
url: "https://zkpick.com/frameworks/failure-modes/reading-formally-verified-as-unconditional/"
section: "02 Choosing a framework"
authors:
  - "MarketComp"
publisher: "MarketComp"
version: "1.3"
updated: "2026-09-12"
license: "CC-BY-4.0"
json: "https://zkpick.com/data/frameworks/failure-modes/reading-formally-verified-as-unconditional.json"
---

*By MarketComp. Updated 2026-09-12. Version 1.3. CC BY 4.0.*

# Reading 'formally verified' as unconditional

A project advertises formal verification and the claim is real but scoped — bounded by stated hypotheses, covering some components and not others. Bugs have been found by conformance testing in exactly the areas a verification effort did not cover.

**Mitigation:** Ask what was verified, against which specification, under what hypotheses, and what was explicitly out of scope. A precise, bounded claim is a good sign; an unqualified one is not.