Signals and vaults

Signal makes the graph weighted

A graph of terms and claims can tell an application what relationships exist. Signal helps it understand where people have placed economic weight.

Every atom and triple has a vault. A participant deposits TRUST on Mainnet or tTRUST on Testnet and receives vault shares. Those positions can express relevance, confidence, attention, or conviction depending on the product and the term.

For a triple, the primary vault represents agreement. The automatic counter-triple vault represents disagreement. This creates two independently inspectable sides of the same claim.

Assets and shares are not the same thing

Assets are the amount of TRUST or tTRUST supplied to a vault. Shares represent the participant’s position after the vault’s bonding curve and fees are applied.

The current share price and the number of shares received can change with vault state. Fees and the default curve are governed configuration, not constants an application should guess. A real integration queries them when needed.

That is why the safe flow uses preview functions:

• Preview atom creation for a new atom vault.
• Preview triple creation for a new triple vault.
• Preview a deposit for an existing vault.
• Preview a redemption before exchanging shares back for assets.

The preview result is still followed by transaction simulation. Only then should a production product ask for a signature.

What signal can and cannot say

Signal is valuable because it makes participation legible. It does not guarantee that the most supported claim is objectively correct.

Consider three cases:

1. A claim has many supporters and meaningful opposition. The relationship is actively contested.
2. A claim has support and no opposition. It may be trusted, or it may not have received serious review.
3. A claim has little signal on either side. It may be new, obscure, or unimportant to the current community.

A product can combine vault state with metadata, recency, source context, and its own ranking rules. The protocol provides raw context; the interface communicates what that context means for a particular decision.

Curves, costs, and fees are live configuration

An application should not teach a fixed creation cost or assume one curve forever. Before a write session, query:

• Atom and triple creation costs.
• The default curve ID.
• Relevant fee configuration.
• Existing term and vault state.

The value attached to a creation transaction must equal the sum of its assets array. Each item must meet the current creation cost. Deposits and redemptions use slippage parameters based on previews.

This lesson is conceptual, but the distinction matters: a polished interface that hardcodes stale economics can still produce unsafe transactions.

Practical example

A Community Resource Curator models:

Builder guide → recommended for → New Intuition builders

Support in the triple vault can indicate that readers found the recommendation useful. Opposition in the counter-triple can reveal that the guide is outdated, misleading, or unsuitable for that audience.

The product should show both the claim and how it interprets the positions. “12 supporters, 3 opposing positions” is more honest than a universal “trusted” badge. It leaves room for the user to inspect the underlying context.

Key takeaways

• Every atom and triple has a vault.
• Deposited assets mint shares according to current curve and fee configuration.
• Triple and counter-triple vaults represent agreement and disagreement.
• Preview and simulation are mandatory steps before real writes.
• Signal adds weight and context; it is not an automatic truth label.