Topics · Protocol concept

dePoD, GAS, and ZKAI

Observers can relate metered operations to accountable receipts and anchor activity rather than to unverifiable uptime claims or raw compute hours without protocol artifacts.

Concrete scenario

What this looks like in practice

A network operator bills for peak CPU while most cycles run test hashes unrelated to receipt production. Treasury planners need metering tied to AnchorCommit submissions, canonical Evidence Graph ingest, and other protocol-accountable work units that leave inspectable artifacts auditors can verify later.

Problem

What breaks today

Markets that reward presence or raw compute invite spoofed demand. Protocol economics should meter accountable, context-bound machine work — anchoring, evidence ingest, and receipt-backed operations — not idle participation.

Mechanism

How ZK-SNAP responds

dePoD ties demand to useful receipt-backed activity near execution. GAS meters protocol resource consumption for anchors, graph operations, and heavy shared evidence paths. ZKAI settles governed protocol charges — separating usage from speculative presence metrics and vanity participation scores.

Verifiable outcome

What a verifier can check

Metered events reference receipt or anchor artifacts that can be independently inspected.
GAS charges align to published protocol accounting units, not ad-hoc vendor SKUs.
Settlement records bind to governed chain events where settlement profiles apply.
Idle or non-receipt work falls outside dePoD demand definitions.

Related profiles and labels

Context-bound productionMetered operationsUsage-based settlement

Scope boundary

What a receipt does not replace

Protocol accounting meters defined operations — not full business profitability, legal pricing of services, or mainnet settlement before launch gates clear.

Go deeper

Try the workflow, then read the spec.

Use Cases tells the story with cards. Proof Lab runs create and verify locally. Protocol holds the normative reference.

Protocol reference How it works Proof Lab