Toward Cross-Domain Structural Measurement: Preregistered Validation of the Standard Coherence Fidelity Layer (SCFL) Across Financial and Distributed Infrastructure Systems

This work presents a preregistered, specification-frozen validation of the Standard Coherence Fidelity Layer (SCFL) as a deterministic, telemetry-native measurement instrument for detecting structural deformation in tightly coupled systems. SCFL operates at system seams—the measurable interfaces between independently evolving subsystems—and quantifies mismatch (Δ), cumulative deformation (Φ), and time-to-boundary (τ) using only native operational telemetry. The study evaluates whether these operators produce consistent pre-event signals across structurally distinct domains without parameter tuning. Two canonical cases are examined under a rigid validation protocol with quantitatively defined rejection thresholds: the May 6, 2010 Flash Crash (financial market microstructure) and the November 25, 2020 AWS Kinesis outage (distributed cloud infrastructure). In both cases, SCFL operators exhibit measurable upstream deformation signatures prior to observable system failure, satisfying all preregistered criteria, including threshold exceedance, deformation acceleration, τ contraction, and low false-positive rates. SCFL is designed as a zero-friction upstream measurement layer. It requires no software integration, no instrumentation changes, and no interaction with live control systems, functioning instead as a passive analytical overlay on existing time-series telemetry. This architecture enables deterministic, auditable detection of latent structural stress before degradation propagates into operational or financial loss. The results support SCFL’s applicability under three constrained conditions: seams must be directly observable, deformation must evolve continuously, and system boundaries must be measurable. The study is intentionally scoped as Phase 1 (proof-of-concept). While findings demonstrate cross-domain consistency under frozen specification, broader validation requires expansion to larger case corpora and testing under adversarial conditions. In addition to empirical validation, the paper outlines a proposed translation layer into actuarial and risk management contexts, where Φ and τ may function as upstream indicators of loss regime transition and resilience contraction. These mappings are presented as hypotheses for future empirical testing rather than established implementations. This work positions SCFL not as a domain-specific model, but as a candidate cross-domain measurement instrument for structural coherence and pre-event risk detection, with applications spanning financial systems, distributed infrastructure, and other tightly coupled environments where high-frequency telemetry and observable seams are present.