Methodology

Trust-Minimized / User-Enforced

Users retain unilateral or protocol-enforced claim to BTC without relying on a single entity’s discretion. Recovery is governed by Bitcoin-native or credibly decentralized rules.

Quorum / Qualified Custodian

Recovery depends on an honest quorum, bridge signer set, federation, or regulated custodian rather than direct user control.

Single-Entity Dependency

Recovery depends on one company or legal structure that can freeze access, fail operationally, or leave users structurally exposed in insolvency.

Limited Blast Radius

Contracts are immutable or tightly scoped, and a contract failure would not directly allow unilateral loss of core user principal. Operational disruption may still be possible.

Admin Guardrails / Contained Control

The protocol is upgradable, pauseable, or still maturing, but admin powers are primarily defensive and do not create clean unilateral control over principal.

Direct Fund Control / Unbounded Blast Radius

A contract exploit or admin action can directly move collateral, rewrite withdrawal rules instantly, or materially impair principal.

Economically Real / Non-Reflexive

Yield comes from identifiable economic activity and would still exist if token incentives disappeared. The payout may vary with market conditions but is not sustained by emissions.

Real Yield, Material Dependencies

Yield is economically real, but a meaningful share depends on active management, basis spreads, counterparties, credit underwriting, market structure, or temporary incentive support.

Reflexive / Fragile

Yield depends primarily on token emissions, undercollateralized credit, aggressive leverage, or structures that weaken when new capital slows or incentives fade.

Immediate & Rules-Based

Users can redeem on demand with no protocol-enforced queue, lock, or discretionary gate.

Queued / Market-Dependent

Exits are allowed, but require notice, unbonding, cool-down periods, batch processing, or reliance on secondary-market liquidity.

Locked / Discretionary

Exits can be blocked by fixed lockups, manual intervention, legal restrictions, or terms that allow the operator to pause redemptions during stress.

Continuously Verifiable

A third party can independently verify solvency, backing, and strategy exposure on a continuous or near-real-time basis, either on-chain or via public cryptographic attestations.

Delayed / Partial Attestation

Transparency is present but delayed, incomplete, or dependent on a single authorized verifier (e.g., periodic proof-of-reserves, monthly auditor reports, proof of assets without liabilities).

Opaque / Black Box

No cryptographic proof of reserves, hidden wallet addresses or counterparties, omitted liabilities, or a proprietary non-auditable yield engine.