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Concepts
The seven core entities a wave is recorded as, and how they link.
A wave is recorded as seven core entities, and each one links to the others in a fixed shape. Read this page once and the rest of the reference falls into place. This reference describes the wave shape specifically (commit-reveal-v1); the free official-result rounds you can try today use a different, source-verified mechanism and their own record entries, not covered here.
The seven entities
- Wave
- One round of participation, with a clear start and end. Everything else hangs off a wave.
- Mechanism
- The published method that decides a wave (commit-reveal-v1), committed before the wave runs. Scoped to waves — other product families use other mechanisms.
- Participant
- A person taking part on terms they can see.
- Participation
- A single act of taking part in a wave, written to the record.
- Outcome
- What the mechanism produced for a wave, tied back to its commitment.
- Contribution
- The defined share of a participation routed to a cause, traceable end to end.
- Cause
- A verified destination for the defined share, fixed per wave and published in advance.