Every journalist who publishes under their byline on STNews has been independently identity- and credential-verified by our editorial board. This page explains exactly how that process works — what we check, who checks it, and what we publish about it.
Why we verify
STNews covers stablecoins, regulation, on-chain forensics and digital-asset markets — every one of which counts as a YMYL (“Your Money or Your Life”) topic under Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines and a topic where misinformation can cost readers real money. We do not let anonymous or pseudonymous writers publish under a real byline. Every byline is a real person with a real, verified background.
The verification checklist
Before an author’s profile is marked Verified and the green ✓ badge appears next to their name, three of our editors complete the following checklist independently:
- Identity. A government-issued ID matching the by-line name is reviewed in person or by encrypted video call. We do not store the ID image after verification.
- LinkedIn match. The author’s public LinkedIn profile must match the name, photo and employment history on file.
- Previous-employer reference. At least one prior employer listed in the author’s “Previously at” history must confirm employment dates and role by direct email or phone, using contact details we sourced independently (not provided by the author).
- Credential issuer check. Every certification claimed on the author’s page must include a verification URL from the issuing organisation’s public lookup (e.g. CFA Institute Member Lookup, FINRA BrokerCheck, state bar attorney lists). The “verify ↗” link next to each credential resolves to that public record. Credentials without a public issuer lookup are marked unverified until the author supplies one.
- Conflicts review. The author’s disclosure statement, prior employers, and known token holdings are reviewed for live conflicts with their beat. Editors are reassigned to a different beat where the conflict cannot be eliminated.
What we publish about each verification
When the green ✓ badge appears on an author page, three pieces of provenance are also published:
- Verification date — the month and year the verification was completed.
- Method — a short summary of which checks were performed (e.g. “Government ID + LinkedIn match + previous-employer reference check”).
- Reviewer — the editor or editorial board that signed off.
This same information is also emitted in machine-readable form (Schema.org Person.additionalProperty) so that audit tools and search engines can independently inspect our verification provenance, not just the badge.
Credentials we treat as unverified
Any credential claimed in an author’s profile without a public verification URL from the issuer is rendered with an explicit unverified tag — both on the page and in the JSON-LD hasCredential object. We don’t strip these claims because they may be real and useful context, but we don’t ask readers to trust them on the author’s word alone.
An unverified tag on a single credential does not affect the author’s overall verification badge — that badge attests only to identity, employment history, and at least one independently-verifiable credential.
Re-verification
Every author profile is re-verified annually, or earlier if a new claim is added (new certification, new prior employer, new disclosure). The Verification date on the author page always reflects the most recent re-verification.
Reporting a verification concern
If you believe an STNews author’s credentials are misrepresented, please email corrections@stnews.live with as much detail as you can share. We investigate every concern, and where a claim cannot be substantiated we remove the credential from the author’s page and publish a correction.
Last reviewed: May 2026 · Maintained by the STNews Editorial Board · Linked from every author page.