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MIC SPEC

Mobius Integrity Credits (MIC) — Specification v0.1

MIC is reputation capital, not currency. It gates capabilities and weights governance within the Mobius ecosystem.

Issuance Rules (How MIC Is Earned)

Action MIC Awarded Rationale
Create EPICON attestation +1 Captures intent; creates audit trail
Pass Sentinel review (no flags) +2 Demonstrates clarity and completeness
Merge PR with ≥2 human sign-offs +5 Shows collaborative legitimacy
Flag a policy violation +3 Reward protective friction
Contribute to a pilot case study +10 Empirical proof is scarce
Propose MIC utility improvement +2 Governance iteration

Issuance events are recorded in an append-only log (implementation-defined: git log, database, or signed ledger).

Burn / Slash Rules (How MIC Is Lost)

Behavior MIC Penalty Trigger
False attestation -20 (slash) Deliberately falsified EPICON metadata
Override without justification -10 Emergency override without EPICON rationale within 24h
Sybil attestation -50 (slash + ban) Fake identities used to boost MIC
Inactivity decay -1/week After 90 days of zero contributions

Slashing requires dual-sentinel flag + human review.

Sybil Resistance (Identity Model)

v0.1: Identity is tied to GitHub identity + attestation history. Sybil resistance is social: meaningful MIC accumulation requires consistent, cross-validated contributions that are costly to fake.

v0.2 (optional): Add verifiable org membership, stake mechanisms, or signed identity attestations.

MIC Utilities (What MIC Unlocks)

MIC is not "spent" like money; it unlocks privileges or weights governance.

Utility 1: Priority Review Lane

  • Threshold: 10 MIC
  • Benefit: Expedited Sentinel review queue
  • Rationale: Reputation buys throughput, not correctness

Utility 2: Governance Vote Weight

  • Benefit: MIC contributes weight in governance votes for protocol changes (RFCs)
  • Rationale: Active contributors shape the system

Utility 3: Sentinel-Sponsored Staging Deployment

  • Threshold: 50 MIC
  • Benefit: Auto-deploy to staging if Sentinel review passes (production still requires human sign-off)

Utility 4: Case Study Co-Authorship

  • Threshold: 100 MIC
  • Benefit: Co-author a published pilot case study in pilots/

Linear decay: -1 MIC/week after 90 days of inactivity.

Purpose: prevent reputation hoarding and keep governance weight tied to active participation.

External Value (Explicit Statement)

MIC is not transferable, exchangeable, or convertible to external assets.

MIC's value is internal legitimacy, not market price.

Ledger Implementation (v0.1)

MIC issuance and burn events are recorded as:

  1. Git-based log: Append-only entries in ledger/mic/ directory
  2. Tamper-evident: Git history provides audit trail
  3. Machine-readable: JSON format for tooling

Example ledger entry:

{
  "event_id": "MIC-2026-01-24-001",
  "type": "issuance",
  "recipient": "github:username",
  "amount": 5,
  "reason": "PR merge with ≥2 sign-offs",
  "pr_ref": "PR-1234",
  "timestamp": "2026-01-24T12:00:00Z",
  "attested_by": ["sentinel:aurea", "human:reviewer1", "human:reviewer2"]
}

Governance of MIC Rules

Changes to MIC issuance, burn, or utility rules require:

  • RFC filed in docs/11-SUPPLEMENTARY/rfcs/
  • 72-hour minimum review window
  • ≥2 maintainer approvals
  • EPICON documenting intent and rationale

See docs/RFC_PROCESS.md for details.

Falsifiability

MIC is useful if:

  • Contributors with high MIC are more likely to produce legitimate decisions
  • MIC-weighted governance produces better outcomes than unweighted voting
  • Decay prevents gaming and keeps governance current

MIC is broken if:

  • High-MIC contributors produce worse outcomes
  • MIC accumulation becomes an end in itself
  • Gaming strategies dominate legitimate contributions

"We heal as we walk." — Mobius Substrate