# Open Questions — Stage 0 Working Defaults

**Status:** Provisional (non-normative until promoted into core specs)  
**Date:** 2026-07-28  
**Authority:** Unblocks schema enums, golden fixtures, and draft legal skeleton. Does **not** finalize legal policy.  
**Sources:** PRD §14, concept §24, SWOT I-09  
**Promotion rule:** Moving a default into `TargetRevenueFrameworkCore.md` or TRSL draft requires human accept (SCOPE §4).

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## How to read this document

| Label | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Working default** | Use this in Stage 0 schemas, examples, and validators |
| **Blocked on research** | No default yet; do not invent in code as if normative |
| **Blocked on legal** | Needs specialist input; skeleton may mark `[LEGAL]` only |

Each item maps to PRD open question numbers in parentheses.

---

## Q1 — Noncommercial rights during protected Phase (1)

**Working default (documentation only):**  
During a protected Phase, noncommercial users may view source, evaluate, test, and use for personal, research, and educational purposes consistent with a PolyForm-Noncommercial-style scope — exact clause text is **blocked on legal**.

**Schema impact:** No mandatory machine field beyond Future License and Phase status.  
**Not decided:** Contractor-on-behalf-of-enterprise edge cases (see Q2).

---

## Q2 — Definition of commercial use (2)

**Adopted 2026-07-29 (maintainer accept, `specs/TargetRevenueSourceLicense-V1C1.md` §1):**
Commercial Use is defined objectively as billing, invoicing, or otherwise charging any customer for or in connection with use of the Software before the Conversion Event — regardless of whether the resulting payment is registered with the Trust Service. This replaces the prior circular "use other than Noncommercial Use" framing with a mechanically checkable trigger (the act of billing), which substantially resolves the affiliate/contractor/mixed-purpose/public-sector ambiguity below, since classification no longer depends on who the customer is, only on whether they are billed.

**Still blocked on legal:** whether consumer-protection law in a given jurisdiction overrides this classification for an individual/sole-proprietor customer — see `history/260729-TRSL-Jurisdiction-StandardTerms.md` §4 item 2 and the recurring B2B/consumer pattern found across `workplans/TREV-WP-0004-global-jurisdiction-research.md` (Germany/EU, US via CCPA, Argentina).

**Stage 0 practice:** Golden examples assume a paying "commercial entitlement" for any company production use; do not encode a full classifier in the fold library — the License's billing-based trigger is a legal/contractual definition, not a Stage 0 schema field.

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## Q3 — Future License options (3)

**Working default:**  
Both **MIT** and **Apache-2.0** are allowed `phase.future_license` enum values. Phase authors choose one at publication; default in examples is **MIT**.

**Patent treatment of pre-conversion phase:** Express patent license for permitted uses is **blocked on legal** (WP-0001-T03). Schemas allow Future License enum only; no separate patent field required in Stage 0.

---

## Q4 — Target Multiple classes (4)

**Working default:**  
`target_multiple` is an **open decimal** ≥ 0. The 0x / 1x / 10x / 100x / 1000x labels are **guidance classes** (concept §7.4), not a closed enum.

**Stage 0 practice:** Examples use 100. Validators accept any non-negative decimal; may **warn** (not fail) if value is not in `{0,1,10,100,1000}`.

---

## Q5 — Development-cost components in target basis (5)

**Working default:**  
Target basis transparency fields: `estimated_effort_days`, `daily_rate` (or equivalent published rate), `approved_direct_costs`.  
`Initial Target = (effort × rate + direct costs) × target_multiple` when basis is fully supplied.

**Excluded from Stage 0 basis by default:** Marketing, general overhead, unrelated R&D, opportunity cost, and speculative “market value” uplifts not expressed via Target Multiple.

**Blocked on research/legal:** Employee vs contractor rate disclosure norms; mandatory audit of direct costs.

---

## Q6 — Currency and FX (6)

**Working default:**  
A Phase has **one native currency** (`phase.initial_target.currency`). All ledger entries for that Phase **must** use the same currency in Stage 0.

**Schema rule:** Reject entry currency mismatches. No FX conversion in the pure fold.

**Later:** Optional FX extension may be registered; until then multi-currency Phases are out of scope.

---

## Q7 — Progress-sensitive degeneration formula (7)

**Adopted 2026-07-29** (`workplans/TREV-WP-0007-degeneration-policy-and-canonical-profiles.md` T02, maintainer-accepted): `trsl:policy:linear-longstop-v0` is confirmed as the v1 norm for the first pilot cohort, not merely a Stage 0 pilot placeholder. Defined as:

- Remission accrues **only** by time toward a declared **Longstop Date** (see Q8).
- Between Phase activation `t0` and Longstop `tL`,  
  \( R(t) = T_0 \times \mathrm{clamp}((t - t_0)/(t_L - t_0), 0, 1) \)  
  with discrete ledger `remission-credit` entries computed on a published schedule (e.g. daily or monthly UTC), **or** a single full remission at longstop for minimal implementations.
- Development Credit does not change the remission schedule in v0 (no progress-sensitive boost/pause).

**Research complete, not adopted:** `specs/TargetDegenerationPolicyResearch.md` (T01) proposes a candidate `trsl:policy:progress-paused-longstop-v1` (a 90-day rolling "quiet period" pause on Remission Credit during active Development Credit periods) and explicitly recommends *not* adopting a diversity-of-payers factor (no gaming-resistant signal exists yet). v1 is the named next iteration, to be revisited once real pilot Development Credit data exists — not required before pilot Phases proceed under v0.

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## Q8 — Fixed Longstop Date (8)

**Working default:**  
**Every Phase MUST declare a Longstop Date** (or equivalent full-remission instant) in the Phase Manifest for Stage 0 conformance.

**Schema:** Treat `phase.longstop_at` (ISO 8601) as **Required** for Stage 0 validators (extension of TSD §3.1 recommended fields → required under working defaults).

**Rationale:** Prevents indefinite restriction if the product hypothesis fails (PRD risk table; concept §13.3).

---

## Q9 — Public metrics mandatory set (9)

**Working default — mandatory public facts:**

- Initial Target, currency  
- Cumulative Development Credit  
- Cumulative Remission Credit  
- Outstanding Target  
- Conversion status  
- Last ledger entry id / checkpoint hash  
- Longstop timestamp  

**Recommended:** Development Credit velocity; time since last material Development Credit; forecast conversion date **labeled as forecast only**.

**Optional:** Contributor diversity counts; confidence ranges.

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## Q10 — Minimum evidence for Development Credit (10)

**Working default — tiered evidence references:**

| Tier | `evidence_reference` | When |
| --- | --- | --- |
| E0 | Opaque internal id (`confidential:…`) | Allowed in Stage 0 fixtures; insufficient for external audit claims |
| E1 | Settled payment reference (processor/id) | Minimum for any public claim of Development Credit in a pilot |
| E2 | Contract + invoice + settlement set | Recommended for disputed or high-value credits |

**Recognition event (see extension contract):** Working default **`payment-settled`** only. Invoice/order without settlement do not create Development Credit in Stage 0 fold inputs.

**Blocked on legal:** Audit rights wording and confidential evidence disclosure process.

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## Q11 — First canonical extensions (11)

**Working default — Stage 0 catalog targets:**

1. `development-license` — default development_allocation 100% of settled development fee (net of tax/refunds per extension)  
2. `cost-plus-operations` — default development_allocation 0%  
3. `phase-sponsorship` — development_allocation **explicitly declared** per transaction  
4. `service-with-development-allocation` — default 0%; explicit split when reusable work enters Milestone  
5. `product-ideation` — default 0% or declared  
6. `general-consulting` — default 0%  

Status `canonical` requires documented review; Stage 0 may ship them as `registered` examples first.

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## Q12 — Disputes, audits, operator conflicts (12)

**Working default (process stub):**  

1. Ledger is append-only; disputes create compensating entries, not silent edits.  
2. Conversion already triggered remains irrevocable (Rule 9) even if a later dispute reduces Development Credit — shortfall is a commercial/audit matter, not re-restriction.  
3. When the Trust Service operator is also a Phase licensor, attestations must be independently re-computable offline; public metrics must not depend on private operator judgment.  
4. **(Added 2026-07-29, TRSL V1C1 §7.4)** Breach notices, cure status, and termination determinations for a Phase are published by the Trust Service as a public conformity signal, distinguishing `alleged` from `determined`. Publication is a ministerial record of the Licensor's (or a dispute process's) determination — the Trust Service does not itself decide whether a breach occurred.  
5. **(Revised 2026-07-29, TRSL V1C1 §7.4 / Appendix A item 10 — blocked on legal)** Whether a published breach record names the affected Commercial Entitlement holder is governed by the applicable Commercial Use Agreement, not a License-wide default — the License itself only guarantees an anonymized Phase-and-category fallback where no Commercial Use Agreement addresses it or none exists. The open item is now drafting the Commercial Use Agreement template's own naming/consent/data-protection clause, not a License-text decision.

**Blocked on governance:** Full dispute SLA and third-party auditor program (PRD Phase 7).

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## Q13 — Trust Service discontinuity (13)

**Working default:**  

- Conversion is a pure function of Manifest + Ledger; offline recompute must remain possible.  
- Every Phase SHOULD be exportable as a **phase evidence package** (manifest, ledger chain, extension snapshots, optional attestation).  
- Operator failure must not be interpretable as “not converted” if Outstanding Target is already zero.

**Stage 0 delivery:** Specify package layout in WP-0002 golden example; full archival SLA later.

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## Q14 — Cryptography / federation protocol (14)

**Working default for Stage 0 library:**  

- Hash chain: SHA-256 over a canonical serialization of the previous entry (canonicalization algorithm fixed in schema ADR).  
- Signatures: **Ed25519** over the same canonical bytes; public keys in a simple key registry file for examples.  
- Key rotation: append-only key history document; not a multi-party federation protocol.

**Blocked on research:** Full federation discovery, threshold attestation, multi-operator conflict resolution.

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## Q15 — Governance path (15)

**Working default:**  
Founder/maintainer-controlled experimentation under this SCOPE until `TRSL-Governance.md` exists. Core term changes require human accept; extensions may be registered as conformant without being canonical.

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## Schema checklist derived from defaults

Stage 0 validators SHOULD enforce:

1. Phase native currency consistency on all entries.  
2. `longstop_at` present on every Phase Manifest.  
3. Development Credit entries only with `recognition` consistent with payment-settled inputs (when extension data present).  
4. `future_license` ∈ {`MIT`, `Apache-2.0`}.  
5. Closed ledger entry type enum from TSD §3.2.  
6. Outstanding Target = `max(0, T0 - C - R)` pure fold.  
7. Conversion Attestation never required to compute conversion status.

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## Revision history

| Date | Change |
| --- | --- |
| 2026-07-28 | Initial working defaults from SWOT I-09 / Stage 0 unblocking |