Shared foundations · Economic research
ZAI.
ZAI as the coordination capital of the agentic economy: a role under study, not a live financial instrument.
ZAI · The capital
ZAI The fixed-supply coordination-capital role under study: supporting the long-term economic foundation of the network. This is not a grant of equity, ownership rights or provider admission.
The intended coordination capital of the agentic economy: staking participation, aligning incentives, coordinating who may act. Capital coordinates; it is not the money you buy bread with, and it is not a currency for daily exchange.
Useful work comes first
The aim is to incentivise useful services and dependable network capacity. Contribution, provider qualification, review and payment must remain distinguishable. No contribution automatically earns SKY, grants ZAI or establishes an entitlement.
Explore the They contribution previewUnderstand the Mesh Substrate
The boundary
No rate, ratio, right, yield, redemption, or acquisition instruction is made here. Fixed supply, collateralization, revenue share, and kWh-reference language remain target-design until counsel and dated receipts say otherwise.
Capital page posture status: research specification no live money no sale no redemption no yield claim
What can never happen here (design refusals)
The money layer is designed as infrastructure that is never sold: the products above it fund it, and no one may rent it out. Any protocol share in the design is destroyed, not collected — no operator account accrues it. Nothing in the design rewards recruitment; distribution follows real, receipted work only.
If the design ever admits outside participants at the protocol layer, it does so as counsel-gated membership expansion under collective signing — never as a public token sale, and never under the word IPO.
The other foundations
ZAI is one of three. The network carries the parts; the money is for exchange. How the two economic roles compare is explained together on the Distributed Finance page.
- The networkSpectreConnects the parts and establishes shared event order.
- The capitalZAIThe coordination-capital role in the long-term design.
- The moneySKYThe intended currency for exchanging useful work.