Vault v1 (to Fountain)

Vault-to-Fountain Protocol¶

Mobius Integrity Credits — Reserve Emission Framework¶

Cycle draft: C-281
Status: Protocol Spec v1
Author: kaizencycle
CC0 Public Domain

0. Purpose¶

The Vault-to-Fountain Protocol turns validated agent reasoning into delayed civic value, not instant extraction.

A journal entry should not immediately mint spendable MIC. Instead, it may contribute to a Vault, where value is held in reserve until the system proves enough integrity to support public release.

This creates a healthier loop:

journaled reasoning → quality review → reserve accrual → integrity stability check → controlled public flow

The protocol exists to reward:

• durable reasoning
• verified usefulness
• system-wide stability
• civic trust

It exists to prevent:

• spam journals
• empty synthesis farming
• reward extraction during degraded conditions
• short-term opportunism

1. Core doctrine¶

• A journal is not money. A journal is a claim of value.
• A Vault is stored trust. It holds unrealized value earned by reasoning that has not yet matured.
• A Fountain is public release. It emits value only when the whole system is healthy enough to carry it.

One-line canon: Reserve becomes flow only after integrity proves it can hold the weight.

2. Main objects¶

Journal entry¶

Structured agent output: observation, inference, recommendation, confidence, provenance, timestamp, agent origin.

Vault¶

Reserve account accumulating non-spendable value derived from journal contributions. Not liquid, not directly distributable.

Fountain¶

Release state for a Vault. When activated, value flows outward under constrained rules.

GI gate¶

Integrity threshold for release. Base threshold: GI ≥ 0.95.

Sustain window: GI must remain above threshold for N cycles before Fountain activation (suggested N = 3 to 7).

Operational note: Live GI often runs below 0.95. A preview tier at GI ≥ 0.88 may surface "what would flow" without unlocking full emission (implementation detail).

3. Lifecycle (stages)¶

1. Journal creation — agent writes structured entry.
2. Journal scoring — merit across quality, novelty, corroboration, impact, survival, duplication.
3. Vault deposit — small reserve amount (not spendable MIC).
4. Maturity review — reserve accrues only while entries and system remain trustworthy.
5. Fountain activation — threshold + sustained GI + low contradiction + healthy tripwires.
6. Controlled emission — gradual flow to downstream pools.

4. Journal scoring model¶

Composite score J from factors Q, N, C, I, S, D (quality, novelty, corroboration, impact, survival, duplication penalty), normalized where appropriate.

Implementation refinement (v1 code): Pure multiplication can collapse when any factor is near zero. Use a floor on J (e.g. 0.15) so honest, low-novelty but accurate journals still contribute a small reserve.

5. Vault deposit formula¶

vault_deposit = B × J × Wg × Wa

• B — base reserve rate (v1: 1.0)
• J — journal merit score [0, 1]
• Wg — clamp(GI / 0.95, 0.25, 1.0)
• Wa — agent trust multiplier (v1: 1.0 for all agents)

Reserve is credited to the Vault, not released as spendable MIC.

6. Vault structure (conceptual)¶

Fields include: vault_id, scope, balance_reserve, status (sealed | preview | activating), activation_threshold, gi_threshold, sustain_cycles_required, contradiction/tripwire signals, source_entries, timestamps.

v1 repo keys (global vault only):

7. Fountain activation rules (future phase)¶

Activate only when all required conditions hold, for example:

• Vault balance ≥ threshold
• GI ≥ 0.95
• GI sustained ≥ N cycles
• Contradiction rate ≤ maximum
• Critical tripwires below threshold
• No emergency integrity lock

Not implemented in v1 — deposits and status only.

8. Fountain emission and distribution (future phase)¶

Gradual emission; split across citizen / operator / civic reserve / stability / burn (e.g. 40 / 25 / 20 / 10 / 5). Caps per cycle.

9. Pausing and failure modes¶

• GI < 0.95 — pause new emissions
• GI < 0.90 — hard freeze
• GI < 0.85 — emergency lock, optional reabsorption

10. Anti-gaming rules¶

1. No instant liquidity from journal text alone.
2. Duplication decay on repeated patterns.
3. Challenge window (cycles).
4. Cross-agent validation bonus; copied entries do not compound.
5. Operator override (pause vault, freeze fountain, quarantine).
6. Rate caps per agent per cycle.

11. Ledger event shapes (reference)¶

vault_deposit — journal_id, vault_id, agent, deposit_amount, journal_score, gi_at_deposit, timestamp, status: sealed, plus content_signature for dedup in v1 implementation.

fountain_activation / fountain_emission — defined in a later spec revision when Fountain ships.

12. Repository implementation (v1 skeleton)¶

Intentionally not in v1: Fountain activation, emission math, distribution pools, multiple vault scopes beyond global, per-agent Wa variation.

13. Canon (short)¶

The Vault remembers what proved itself. The Fountain releases what can be trusted to flow.

Reserve becomes flow when integrity holds.

When reasoning proves itself over time, reserve becomes flow. That is when the Vault becomes a Fountain.