How a Marketplace Deal Flows: List, Disclose, Fund, Settle

What you are about to see

Trade today: a letter of credit, four to six intermediaries, a 60 to 90 day cycle, $1,000 to $3,000 in bank fees per deal, 60 to 70% rejection on first-pass document presentation. Trade on EDMA: a single transaction sequence on a public L2, four canonical milestones, automated EMT minting on each PASS, instant tranche release, and an on-chain Receipt your auditor can replay from L1.

This page walks the full flow of a worked $100K deal between an operator (seller) and a financier-funded buyer. Use it as the spine when reading the rest of the Marketplace pages: disclosure mechanics, operational signals, operator perspective, financier perspective, and the fee model each zoom in on one slice of what follows.

$100K DEAL, END TO ENDFive stages, from order listed to capital settled. The on-chain effect of each stage is called out below the description.

List & match1Operator lists order, the marketplace matchesOperator posts the order from the TradeOS Orders module with corridor, value, tenor, currency, requested financing structure, and the operational signal pack pulled from TradeOS. Identity is hidden. The marketplace surfaces the listing to financiers whose mandate matches.No on-chain event yet. Listing lives on the marketplace surface; rail does not see the deal until step 3.
Disclose & offer2Two-step disclosure, signed offers, acceptanceFinanciers tap interest. Operator approves a subset; identities reveal simultaneously to both sides. Shortlisted financiers send signed offers (rate, advance %, tenor, covenants, timeline). Operator picks one. The deal moves to fund stage.Disclosure receipt hashed and attestor-signed (v2). No fund movement yet.
Pre-Ship & fund3Buyer commits EDSD, Pre-Ship EMT mintsBuyer commits the financed amount in EDSD into escrow. The protocol mints the Pre-Ship EMT, the receipt that the must-fund condition is met. No EMT, no shipping. The $100K sits Locked across four milestone tranches; ~75% of each tranche is swept into short-dated T-bills while Locked.Pre-Ship EMT mints.edsd.commit(escrow) fires. Locked EDSD swept to T-bills, interest posted to the order ledger.
Milestones4Four canonical milestones gate the tranched releaseOn-Board, Customs, Delivered, Arrival/QA. Each PASS mints its EMT, fires settleTrancheOnPass, deducts the 0.5% protocol fee with per-tranche caps, burns 50% of the fee in $EDM, and unlocks the tranche. Same evidence cannot finalise twice.4 EMTs mint (one per PASS), 4 tranches release, 4 fee burns recorded. See the milestone track and PASS sequence below.
Settled5Final tranche releases with T-bill yieldAt Arrival/QA PASS, the final 15% releases with accrued T-bill interest minus protocol fees. Receipt v1 closes with the PoV hash, settlement-fee burn hashes, marketplace tier-fee accrual, and the full evidence audit trail.Receipt v1 closes.receipt.close() emits with all hashes. Worked numbers in the waterfall below.

Five stages of a worked $100K deal between an operator and a financier-funded buyer. The milestone track and waterfall below zoom in on stages 4 and 5.

Step 1: List and match

The operator posts the order from inside TradeOS Orders module. The listing carries: corridor (origin and destination), value, evidence requirements per milestone, requested financing structure (advance %, tenor, currency), and the operational signal pack pulled directly from TradeOS (supplier reliability, payment history, dispute rate, fulfillment cycle, document quality, trading-history depth). Identity is hidden at this stage.

The marketplace anonymises the listing and surfaces it to financiers whose mandate matches the corridor, value band, and signal profile. Financiers filter, browse, and tap interest on fits. The marketplace never reveals identity until both sides confirm: this is the two-step disclosure wall.

Step 2: Disclose, offer, accept

When financiers tap interest, the operator gets a shortlist with their references, KYB profiles, and disclosure-tier indicators. The operator approves a subset; identities reveal simultaneously to both sides. No backdoor reveals. No financier sees what another financier was shown.

Shortlisted financiers send signed offers with rate, advance %, tenor, covenants, and timeline. Each offer is private to the operator; no financier sees what another quoted. The operator picks one. The deal moves to fund stage.

Step 3: Pre-Ship EMT and must-fund

On acceptance, the buyer commits the financed amount in EDSD into the deal escrow. The protocol mints the Pre-Ship EMT: this is the receipt that the must-fund condition is met. Until Pre-Ship EMT exists, no bill of lading is accepted into the rail and no milestone evidence will be evaluated. No funding, no shipping.

The 100K in EDSD now sits Locked across the four milestone tranches. While Locked, approximately 75% of each tranche is swept into short-dated T-bills (70 to 100 days); interest is posted to the order ledger with Proof-of-Reserves. The buyer cannot withdraw; the seller cannot draw early. The slice flips Locked to Unlocked only on milestone PASS.

Step 4: The four canonical milestones

FOUR CANONICAL MILESTONESEach PASS mints its EMT, fires settleTrancheOnPass, deducts the protocol fee, and unlocks the tranche. Same evidence cannot finalise twice.

M0130%

On-Boardof remaining principal

Evidenceelectronic bill of lading on_board event, container set, seal photo, voyage_id

Attestorat least one title attestor (line agent or authorised eBL issuer), independent of buyer and seller

SLA target95% within 30 min of evidence receipt

M0230%

Customsof remaining principal

Evidencecustoms entry & clearance event (corridor-specific: NAFEZA for Egypt, ICS2 for EU, ACE for US, ePhyto for perishables)

Attestorcustoms broker independent of buyer and seller

SLA targetsame-day filing receipt

M0325%

Deliveredof remaining principal

Evidenceproof of delivery (POD) at destination terminal plus gate-out event. Container release; partial sub-milestones allowed

Attestorforwarder plus terminal operator

SLA targetPOD within 4 hr of terminal release

M04 · FINAL15%

Arrival/QAplus accrued T-bill yield

EvidenceQA lab inspection PASS plus optional cold-chain telemetry within tolerance window

Attestorindependent QA lab

SLA target60 min from evidence receipt

Release percentages are the typical default for a 4-tranche structure; per-deal terms can override. Tranche-level caps on the protocol fee are documented on Fees and $EDM burn. Equality of evidence (all attestations reference the same evidenceHash) and one-claim exclusivity (same claim_id cannot finalise twice) are enforced at every PASS.

Four canonical milestones with release percentages, evidence types, attestor requirements, and SLA targets. Same evidence cannot finalise twice; same claim_id cannot mint two EMTs.

What fires on-chain at each PASS

Each milestone fires the same transaction sequence. The attestor submits evidence to the PoV Gate via proof.submit(evidence); the buyer has a 0 to 4 hour review window (governed parameter). If the buyer does not block, the gate evaluates: attestation quorum (role-diverse, at least one independent auditor present and valid), equality of evidence (all attestations reference the same evidenceHash), and One-Claim exclusivity (same claim_id cannot finalise twice).

On PASS, settleTrancheOnPass fires. It calculates the tranche amount, deducts the 0.5% protocol fee (capped per tranche), calls EDMBurner.burn to burn 50% of the fee in $EDM with a posted burn hash, calls EDSD.unlock to flip the slice Locked to Unlocked, mints the EMT for that stage, and emits the Receipt v1 event with PoV hash, claim_id, and the full financial ledger. Total latency from evidence submission to payment: seconds.

ONE MILESTONE PASS, ON-CHAINEach of the four milestones fires the same transaction sequence. The buyer has a 0–4 hour review window between PASS and tranche release (governed parameter).

1Attestor submits proof.submit(evidence)Evidence hash, claim_id, attestor signature, role (title / customs / delivery / QA)Attestor
2PoV Gate evaluates four conditionsQuorum (≥1 attestor for this role) · role diversity · equality of evidence (same evidenceHash) · one-claim exclusivity (claim_id never finalised)PoV Gate
⊘If any condition fails: REJECTEDNo mint, no release. Attestor can re-submit corrected evidence. Same claim_id finalising twice is structurally impossible, not retrospectively detectable.Rejected
3Buyer review window (0–4 hr governed parameter)If the buyer does not block, the gate proceeds. Block is documented and disputed off the rail.Buyer
4settleTrancheOnPass firesCalculate tranche amount · deduct 0.5% protocol fee · burn 50% of the fee in $EDM atomically · release EDSD to the financier’s ledger position · mint the milestone EMT.Settle
5EMT minted, tranche flipped Locked → UnlockedReceipt updates with the PoV hash, the settlement-fee burn hash, the marketplace tier-fee accrual entry, and the evidence audit trail.Receipt

Identical transaction sequence at every milestone PASS. Attestor submits, PoV Gate evaluates the four conditions, settle fires, EMT mints, tranche flips Locked to Unlocked. Reject path keeps the tranche Locked pending corrected evidence.

Step 5: The $100K worked example

Buyer funds 100,000 EDSD. Four lock tranches: 30,000 + 30,000 + 25,000 + 15,000. On-Board PASS unlocks 30,000; the 0.5% fee is $150, of which $75 burns in $EDM. Customs PASS unlocks 30,000; fee $150, burn $75. Delivered PASS unlocks 25,000; fee $125, burn $62.50. Arrival/QA PASS unlocks 15,000; fee $75, burn $37.50.

Total: $100,000 released over the deal life, $500 in protocol fees, $250 burned in $EDM, ~17 on-chain transactions, under $0.03 in gas. Compare to the LC equivalent on the same lane: $1,000 to $3,000 in bank fees alone, 60 to 90 day settlement cycle, paper document presentation, no auditor-replayable trail, and a 60 to 70% probability of rejection on first-pass document presentation requiring re-submission.

THE $100K DEAL, BROKEN DOWNBuyer commits $100,000 EDSD. Four tranches release as milestones PASS. Per-tranche 0.5% protocol fee (capped), 50% of each fee burns in $EDM. Locked EDSD earns short-dated T-bill yield over the cycle.

+$100,000Buyer commits EDSD into escrow

Pre-Ship EMT mints. Funds Locked across 4 milestone tranches. ~75% swept to short-dated T-bills (70–100 days).

$30,000M01 · On-Board release

Title attestation passes the PoV Gate. settleTrancheOnPass fires.

−$1500.5% settlement fee on M01 tranche

−$7550% of fee burns in $EDM (M01)

Burn hash 0x9c1f…3a82 recorded on the receipt.

$30,000M02 · Customs release

Customs broker attestation. M02 EMT mints. Fee $150 (50% burns, $75).

$25,000M03 · Delivered release

Forwarder + terminal attestation. M03 EMT mints. Fee $125 (50% burns, $62.50).

$15,000M04 · Arrival/QA release (final)

Independent QA lab attestation. M04 EMT mints. Fee $75 (50% burns, $37.50).

+$432T-bill yield accrued on Locked EDSD

Posted to the order ledger as tranches release. Yield routes per the deal terms (typical: net to operator at M04).

$99,932Net to participants (after fees, plus yield)

Total protocol fee $500 (4 × $125 average), of which $250 burns in $EDM. $432 in T-bill yield. Operator and financier shares per the signed offer terms.

$100K from buyer commit through four milestone releases. Total protocol fee $500, of which $250 burns in $EDM atomically with a burn hash on the Receipt. T-bill yield $432 accrues on Locked EDSD over the cycle.

What happens if a milestone fails

The PoV Gate returns FAIL or NEED_MORE when evidence is incomplete, inconsistent, or attestations don’t meet quorum. That tranche stays Locked. Other tranches that already passed remain Unlocked: the rail is per-tranche, not all-or-nothing. The dispute flow opens with a deterministic clock and variance math; buyer or seller can escalate; governance can intervene per the published exception rules on the Settlement page.

If a milestone is fundamentally not met (the goods didn’t ship; QA failed beyond tolerance), the locked tranche routes back to the buyer per the contract terms recorded at funding. No tranche can be released without a corresponding EMT; no EMT can mint without a PoV PASS. The constitutional invariants (No EMT no funds; Must-fund before shipping; One-Claim; 50% burn) cannot be voted away.

Where it stands today

EDMA L2 mainnet has been live since May 16, 2026 with the settlement rail in production. The Global Trade Marketplace MVP is in the build phase (Weeks 10–12 of the L2 application layer build) and ships with Stage 3 of the EDMA roadmap (Nov 2026 – Jan 2027) alongside the $EDM exchange listing. v1 routes the matching layer with bilateral money flow off-platform plus accrual ledger fees; v2 brings settlement on-chain via EDSD.