§11. Service-Instrument Design Space

Jason St George. "§11. Service-Instrument Design Space" in Next Generation Stores of Value: Privacy, Proofs, Compute. Version v2.0. /v/2.0/read/part-ii/11-monetary-design-space/

Service-Instrument Design Space

Once Work Credits exist as a generic mechanism for binding work to claims, we can sketch the design space of service and settlement instruments built on top of the triad. Monetary candidacy remains confined to the base asset and subject to the Triad Coherence Test.

The “ZK Money” Analytical Lens

The legacy “ZK Money” label groups service instruments that primarily reference Privacy + Proofs:

• Claims on shielded settlement capacity (corridor LP positions, privacy-rail credits).

• Claims on zero-knowledge proof capacity (e.g., SNARK/STARK service tiers).

They combine:

• bearer-like, censorship-resistant settlement rights; and

• bundled attestations of compliant behavior.

These service instruments may be attractive to:

• Treasuries under repression.

• Regulated actors who need both privacy and attestable compliance.

• Individuals who want “cash-like” assets in digital form.

The “AI Money” Analytical Lens

The legacy “AI Money” label groups service instruments that primarily reference Compute + Proofs:

• Claims on verified FLOPs.

• Futures on model-specific inference capacity with proof guarantees.

• Equity-like positions in proof factories whose output is standardized, verified compute.

They are attractive to:

• AI labs and application builders wanting hedges against compute shortage.

• Investors who believe “AI demand will outlive this particular model cycle.”

Hybrid Instruments

Hybrids reference all three legs:

• Triad baskets: Index-like instruments backed by diversified Work Credits across privacy, proof, and compute workloads.

• Corridor-linked compute claims: Service instruments that couple private settlement rights with AI inference capacity.

• Agent service treasuries: On-chain agents that hold combinations of typed proof, settlement, and compute claims to fund their own operation.

The key design constraint is always the same: claims must stay tightly coupled to verifiable work and capacity, not to governance mood or marketing narrative.

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