diff --git a/02-DECISIONS/0039-the-link-is-the-security-boundary.md b/02-DECISIONS/0039-the-link-is-the-security-boundary.md
index 5539174..0d0e4de 100644
--- a/02-DECISIONS/0039-the-link-is-the-security-boundary.md
+++ b/02-DECISIONS/0039-the-link-is-the-security-boundary.md
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-status: proposed
+status: accepted
 date: 2026-08-25
 deciders: jochen
 reconstructed: false
@@ -15,8 +15,11 @@ declarations from, and names the gap it leaves: *"everything a node applies arri
 so what may be pushed, and how a joining node proves it is entitled to join, is now a question
 worth its own record."*
 
-This is that record. It is a design decision about a boundary that does not exist yet, so it is
-proposed rather than measured — but what it replaces is measured, and that is the argument.
+This is that record. It is a design decision about a boundary that does not exist yet — but
+what it replaces is measured, and that is the argument.
+
+Settled as: **a node owns no password. It owns an identity, and that identity is what it
+presents to the broker.**
 
 ### What adoption does today