Freshness

Every binding stores observedAt: the time, in Unix seconds, at which the platform confirmed who owns the account. byHandle and byId return it.

Where the time comes from

The time is not chosen by the user or by your app. It comes from signed evidence:

Platform	observedAt is
GitHub, X	when the notary signed the record of the user’s session with the platform
Google	the expiry time in Google’s signed sign-in token, about an hour after sign-in

So observedAt can be ahead of the current time: up to five minutes for GitHub and X, and up to an hour for Google. Code that computes an age must not assume it is in the past.

A GitHub or X proof must reach the chain within an hour of that time, and the time cannot be more than five minutes ahead of the block. A Google proof must reach the chain before its token expires. Each platform’s ceremony version fixes these limits; see Protocol parameters.

Newer wins

A proof is accepted only if its observedAt is later than the one already stored for the same account and for the same handle. An old proof cannot undo a newer one, and the same proof cannot be used twice.

What it tells you

observedAt says when the platform last confirmed the binding. It does not say that the owner still has the account, or still uses that handle, today.

Nothing refreshes a binding automatically. It changes only when someone proves the account or the handle again. A binding from last year is still there, unchanged, until then.

How old is too old

libID does not decide this for you. Pick a limit that fits what is at stake:

• To show a name next to a wallet, any age is usually fine.
• To send a payment to a handle, show the age to the sender, and warn when it is old.
• To gate something valuable in a contract, require observedAt + maxAge >= block.timestamp. Do not write block.timestamp - observedAt: it reverts when observedAt is ahead of the block. See Gate a contract.