Embodiments allow management software applications to distinguish computational assets without the use of static, predetermined identifiers that are susceptible to duplication along with computational assets. Managers and computational assets are associated with authenticator values. Additionally, a manager and computational asset determine (e.g., negotiate) an expected nonce (number used once) to be provided by either party when requesting a transaction. Upon receiving a transaction request associated with an authenticator value and a transaction nonce, the sender's knowledge of the expected nonce is proven when the nonce associated with the request matches the expected nonce, and disproven otherwise. When such knowledge is proven, the manager treats the computational asset as the one originally associated with the computational asset authenticator value and negotiates a new nonce. When such knowledge is disproven, the manager treats the computational asset as a duplicate of the one that was originally associated with the computational asset authenticator value.