Three gaps. One root cause.
The other three pages in this section describe specific failures: energy markets that double-count renewable certificates, voluntary carbon markets that retire credits anonymously, and global trade that still settles on couriered LCs and PDFs. They look like three different problems with three different industries.
They are not. The root cause is the same: settlement happens before evidence is verified. Money moves on documents that assert something happened, on promises that something will happen, on annual audits that sample what may have happened. The verification is always after the fact, if it happens at all.
EDMA's response is one rule, applied across every kind of settlement on the rail. No evidence, no settle. It is not a policy. It is not an audit step. It is a contract-level constraint. The PoV gate runs before any state-changing transaction, in the same block as the settlement, with no override path. The same rule that prevents the same kWh from backing two ETTs also prevents an LC release without a verified Bill of Lading and prevents a carbon credit retirement without an AUDITOR sign-off.
This page is the index for that idea. The 5 constitutional brakes are the operational form of the rule. The three deep-dive pages show how the rule applies in each market.
The 5 constitutional brakes
- 01
No EMT, no funds
No EDMA Milestone Token mints without a PoV gate-pass. Locked EDSD cannot flip to Unlocked without a valid EMT. There is no settlement path that bypasses this. The PoV gate sits in the critical path of every value-moving transaction.
- 02
One-Claim
The same evidence cannot finalise two settlements. Anywhere on the rail. The same kWh cannot back two ETTs. The same Bill of Lading cannot back two milestone releases. The same Carbon CreditID cannot be retired twice. This brake is enforced atomically in the same transaction as the mint.
- 03
Must-fund before shipping
After the Pre-Ship EMT mints on a trade order, the buyer must top up the remaining milestone amounts in EDSD before the rail will accept a Bill of Lading or pickup. No funding, no shipping. This single rule prevents the most common trade-finance failure: goods ship while funding falls through.
- 04
Locked → Unlocked only on proof
EDSD that is Locked (for trade escrow, for staked attestor bonds, for buyer pre-funding) can only flip to Unlocked when a verified gate-pass occurs. There is no admin function that releases Locked EDSD without proof. Treasury holds ~75% of Locked EDSD in short-dated T-bills with daily Proof-of-Reserves; the rest in cash.
- 05
50% of every protocol fee burns in $EDM
On every successful settlement (trade milestone release, token settle, token retire), the protocol fee is split. 50% burns in $EDM with an on-chain hash per event. 50% goes to treasury, which funds attestor compensation, ecosystem grants, and ops. The burn is structural, on-chain, and tied to real settlement volume.
