Actors
Who can act, what they can observe and optimize, and which actors the design leaves unaccounted for.
Scope · Applied work
Start with the behaviour the system is creating.
Commissioned work is scoped through three questions: who can act, what the system rewards, and where rational behaviour can break the design.
Rewards
What the mechanism makes worth doing, including the behaviour participants can rationally learn to optimize.
Failure modes
Where those incentives can produce outcomes the protocol did not intend, especially under pressure or at scale.
Available scopes
Defined before work beginsFocused Research Memo
A concise memo that answers a defined question with the relevant evidence, implications, and design questions.
Protocol Design Review
A structured review of how the mechanism works, what behaviour it rewards, which actors it assumes, and where the incentive surface can fail.
Deep Design Review
A deeper review when incentives, reputation, governance, token design, or other mechanisms need to be examined as one system.
Custom Research
For work outside the defined reviews. Scope, timing, and price are agreed before the work starts.
Have a mechanism to stress test?