# Working — Control policy run (condition C)

## STATE: problem
- **statement**: A peer-to-peer hour-for-hour help exchange destabilizes: some members hoard large credit balances and stop offering help; others run deep deficits and leave; a few flood the system with over-rewarded easy services that crowd out needed help. Participation is spiraling down.
- **constraints**: organizers control how credits are earned/spent, what is tracked, what limits exist, what info members see.
- **success_criteria**: active give-and-take holds or grows over a year AND no class of easy service systematically drains value.
- **failure_criteria**: runaway hoarding or deficit drift kills participation, OR a few low-value services dominate.

## Verbs run (verb — why)
1. **match (search_by_facets)** — oblique, multi-structure problem; decomposed into 6 facets (hoarding/velocity, commons degradation, decoupled pricing/flooding, contributor-consumer imbalance, runaway feedback, proxy-reward). Read per-facet lists.
2. **match (get_archetype ×4 + 1)** — pulled `incentive_compatible_rule_design`, `balancing_loop_stabilization`, `commons_governance`, `arbitrage_capture`, then `harmful_arbitrage_closure`.
3. **match (search_prime)** — the velocity/hoarding facet (returns `liquidity`, `turnover`, `buffering`, `damping`) to confirm the circulation reading is a loop-tuning matter, not a standalone archetype.
4. **salience-rank / prune** — see operative_primes.
5. **compose** — typed model (below); referential integrity checked.
6. **lift L1** — model → meta_model; witness check below.
7. **lift L2 (coverage)** — coverage maps for all three operative patterns.
8. **evaluate-fit** — anti-signature gates for all chosen + the declined `harmful_arbitrage_closure`.
9. **reconcile** — concrete vs. meta reading of "over-rewarded service" diverge then resolve.

## STATE: operative_primes
- `incentive_compatibility` (mixed) — **load_bearing**: flat 1hr=1credit is a proxy decoupled from value/effort; the easy-service flood IS proxy-optimization. Removing it changes the rec.
- `circular_causality` / `feedback` / `homeostasis` (structural) — **load_bearing**: hoarding and deficit drift are uncorrected runaway loops; the fix is a balancing loop with a viable balance band.
- `tragedy_of_the_commons` / `public_goods` (mixed) — **load_bearing**: the exchange is a shared resource degraded by individually-rational behavior (hoard, dump easy services); needs legitimacy + monitoring + replenishment of *needed* help.
- `liquidity` / `turnover` (structural) — **context**: names the velocity problem; folds into the loop (demurrage).
- `arbitrage` (mixed) — **context→declined**: flooding looks arbitrage-like but is single-context, not cross-boundary (see gate).

## STATE: model (typed; referential integrity OK)
- nodes: `member`(actor), `credit`(token), `service`(offer), `need`(demand), `ledger`(record), `balance_band`(invariant), `value_signal`(metric), `organizer`(governor).
- edges (all endpoints declared; every load-bearing prime annotated):
  - member —earns→ credit [annot: incentive_compatibility]
  - member —spends→ credit (on need) [incentive_compatibility]
  - credit —accumulates_in→ balance(member); high balance —suppresses→ offering; deep deficit —triggers→ exit [annot: circular_causality/feedback]
  - service —priced_by→ value_signal; flat price —invites→ easy-service flood —crowds_out→ need [annot: incentive_compatibility, tragedy_of_the_commons]
  - organizer —tunes→ balance_band, value_signal, ledger visibility [annot: homeostasis, commons_governance legitimacy]
  - ledger —makes_visible→ balance, need-gaps [annot: monitoring/observability]

## STATE: meta_model (L1 — domain-stripped; every role has a witness)
- roles: holders of a transferable token (members✓); a token whose worth depends on continued circulation (credits✓); a governor who sets rules (organizers✓).
- relations: token earned by supplying / spent by demanding (give-take✓); a self-amplifying drift away from a viable holding range (hoard/deficit✓); a reward rule whose easy-to-satisfy proxy diverges from the true target (flat hour-price vs. needed value✓); a shared pool whose quality degrades under individually-rational supply (flooding✓).
- invariants: token keeps circulating; reward stays coupled to real need/effort; honest contributors not disadvantaged; participation viable for varied members.
- No domain terms remain. ✓

## STATE: candidates
- `incentive_compatible_rule_design` (primary operative pattern) — source overlap: incentive_compatibility, mechanism_design, game_theory.
- `balancing_loop_stabilization` — circular_causality, feedback, homeostasis.
- `commons_governance` — tragedy_of_the_commons, public_goods, resource_management.
- `harmful_arbitrage_closure` — considered; **declined** as standalone (gate).

## COVERAGE MAP

### Pattern A — Incentive-Compatible Rule Design (15 components)
| Component | Status | Witness / reason |
|---|---|---|
| Participant Role Map | instantiated | offerers, requesters, hoarders, dumpers, organizers identified |
| Desired Outcome Specification | instantiated | target = sustained give-take + needed help met, NOT hours logged |
| Action & Choice Set | instantiated | offer/request/hoard/dump/exit enumerated |
| Incentive Payoff Map | instantiated | per-action payoffs incl. status, demurrage cost, balance caps |
| Information Structure Map | instantiated | members see balance band, unmet-need board, service supply density |
| Truthfulness Condition | homolog | no formal report; **two-sided confirmation + rating** discharges honest-effort revelation |
| Verification Rule | instantiated | recipient confirms hours; periodic spot-audit of high-volume offers |
| Penalty or Reward Rule | instantiated | demurrage on idle balances; deficit grace + nudge; bonus credits for scarce needs |
| Strategic Response Test | instantiated | rec stress-tests: cap→still hoard? bonus→fake needs? (red-team note) |
| Failure & Gaming Monitor | instantiated | watch supply-mix skew, balance distribution, exit rate |
| Participation Constraint | instantiated | onboarding starter credit + deficit grace keep newcomers/deficit members in |
| Fairness Constraint | instantiated | scarce-need bonus + effort-weighting protect honest contributors |
| Appeal / Exception Channel | instantiated | dispute path for contested hours/ratings |
| Adaptive Rule Update | instantiated | quarterly retune of band, demurrage rate, bonus list |
| Transparency Explanation | instantiated | published rationale for caps/demurrage to preserve legitimacy |

### Pattern B — Balancing Loop Stabilization (14 components)
| Component | Status | Witness / reason |
|---|---|---|
| Target State / Viable Range | instantiated | a viable balance band per member (not a hard zero) |
| Deviation Signal | instantiated | distance of balance from band; system-wide hoard/deficit spread |
| Feedback Return Path | instantiated | signal surfaced to member (visible band) + organizer dashboard |
| Correction Rule | instantiated | demurrage above band; spend-nudge + earn-nudge near edges |
| Corrective Actuator | instantiated | demurrage rate, soft caps, deficit grace, bonus credits |
| Loop Gain / Response Strength | instantiated | demurrage rate tuned mild first, raised if drift persists |
| Delay Profile | instantiated | monthly demurrage cadence; quarterly governance review |
| Stability Boundary | instantiated | hard cap / suspension-of-earning beyond extreme balance |
| Effect Monitoring | instantiated | track whether balances re-center after correction |
| Deadband / Tolerance Band | instantiated | the band itself = deadband; no penalty inside it |
| Disturbance Model | homolog | seasonal demand swings absorbed by starter-credit buffer + bonus list |
| Saturation Limit | correctly_declined | social actuators (nudges, demurrage) are not capacity-bounded like staff; forcing a saturation parameter would over-engineer |
| Manual Override / Escalation | instantiated | organizer discretion / appeal for edge cases |
| Anti-Gaming Safeguard | instantiated | shared with Pattern A's gaming monitor (demurrage-dodging via fake spend watched) |

### Pattern C — Commons Governance (13 components)
| Component | Status | Witness / reason |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Resource Boundary | instantiated | the exchange + its pool of needed help is the commons |
| Access Rule | instantiated | membership + starter credit |
| Use Quota / Use Limit | instantiated | soft cap + per-period dump limit on over-supplied easy services |
| Monitoring Signal | instantiated | supply-mix dashboard, unmet-need board |
| Sanction Rule | instantiated | demurrage + diminishing reward on flooded categories (graduated) |
| Replenishment Rule | instantiated | scarce-need bonus credits = replenishing the *needed-help* stock |
| Legitimacy Basis | instantiated | published rationale + member input on bonus list |
| Dispute Resolution Path | instantiated | appeal channel (shared w/ A) |
| Adaptation Cadence | instantiated | quarterly review (shared w/ B) |
| Contribution Rule | instantiated | earn-by-helping; effort/need-weighting |
| Funding Pool | homolog | no money pool; **bonus-credit issuance** funds replenishment of scarce help |
| Exception Process | instantiated | exception/appeal channel |
| Transparency Record | instantiated | open ledger of balances/needs/rules |

**No component left [missing] in any operative pattern.**

## evaluate-fit (anti-signature gates)
- **Incentive-Compatible Rule Design**: (a) "problem is skill not strategy" — NO, members respond strategically to flat pricing. (b) "outcome morally contested / undefinable" — NO, target (real help) is specifiable. (c) "no choice" — NO. (d) "just raising a reward/penalty without testing response" — guarded: rec includes strategic-response test, so NOT tripped. (e) "manipulates vulnerable actors / opaque" — NOT tripped: rules published, appeals exist. **KEEP.**
- **Balancing Loop Stabilization**: "only map, no change" NO; "redirect a reinforcing loop, use other archetype" — partial, but we ALSO tune a balancing band, so fits; "no signal" NO (ledger); "no actuator" NO; "target contested" NO; "one-off not recurring" NO. **KEEP.**
- **Commons Governance**: "fully private" NO; "underproduction of non-rival good" — partial overlap but core issue is overuse/dumping + neglect of needed help, so commons fits; "central authority can just allocate" NO (legitimacy needed); "one-time dispute" NO. **KEEP.**
- **Harmful Arbitrage Closure (DECLINED)**: anti-signature "there is no cross-context difference / transferable route; the problem is inside one context" is TRIPPED — the easy-service flood exploits a *single-context* mispricing (flat hour-price), not a cross-boundary mismatch. Its closure logic is fully captured by Incentive-Compatible Rule Design's payoff/coupling redesign. **DROP — declining avoids over-lifting cross-context machinery the problem does not need.**

## reconcile (concrete vs. meta)
Concrete view: "ban/limit the over-rewarded services." Meta view: "recouple reward to real target." These diverge — a flat ban would also kill legitimately useful instances of those services. Resolution consistent with both: don't ban categories; let reward *taper as a category's supply outstrips its demand* (diminishing return on flooded help) + bonus on scarce needs. Meta-model is load-bearing, not decorative.

COST: ~10 operations, ~24k tokens

===RECOMMENDATION_BEGIN===
Keep the hour-for-hour promise as the system's heart, but fix the three leaks that are draining it: credits that sit still, balances that drift to the extremes, and easy jobs that pay the same as hard, needed ones.

First, make credits worth holding only while they move. Give every member a comfortable working range for their balance — say, the equivalent of a few exchanges in either direction. Inside that range nothing happens. Above the upper edge, a small monthly "use-it" charge applies to the idle surplus: a few percent of the amount sitting unused, rising the longer and higher it sits. This is not a tax on helping; it is a gentle pull that turns a stockpile back into a reason to spend, which means asking others for help and putting their hours to use. Below the lower edge, do the opposite: members in deficit get a grace period rather than a penalty, plus a visible nudge and a short list of needed jobs they can do to climb back. New members start with a small positive balance so they can receive help before they have given any, which keeps the door open and slows the deficit-drift exits.

Second, break the flat price that lets easy services flood the pool. Keep one hour as the base unit, but let the credits a service earns taper as its supply runs far ahead of demand for it. When a category of help is plentiful and few people want it, each additional hour of it earns progressively less; when a kind of help is scarce and sought-after, the organizers post a temporary bonus so an hour of it earns somewhat more. Crucially, do not ban or cap whole categories — a banned category still has genuine users, and blunt limits punish them. Instead let the reward follow the gap between what is offered and what is actually requested. Recipients confirm the hours they received, and a light, periodic spot-check on the highest-volume providers keeps confirmations honest without turning the exchange into a surveillance operation.

Third, make the state of the commons visible, because most of the bad behavior is individually reasonable only because no one can see the whole. Show each member their balance against the working range, so hoarding and drifting feel like deviations rather than normal. Publish an open "needs board" of requested-but-unmet help, so people can steer toward where their hours count most, and so the scarce-need bonuses are legible rather than arbitrary. Show, in aggregate, which kinds of help are oversupplied, so the tapering reward is understood as fairness, not punishment.

Hold all of this together with legitimacy and adaptation. Publish the reasoning behind the working range, the idle-balance charge, and the bonus list, and let members weigh in on which needs deserve bonuses — rules people helped shape are rules people accept. Provide a simple appeal path for disputed hours or ratings. And review the dial settings every quarter: the width of the working range, the size of the idle charge, the steepness of the supply-and-demand taper, and the current bonus list. Start the idle charge and the taper mild, and tighten them only if balances keep drifting or one kind of help keeps swamping the rest; back off if people start churning small transactions just to dodge the charge.

The single operating rule that ties it together: credits should reward help that someone actually needs and keep moving while they are held — so reward what is scarce and sought, let what is abundant and idle quietly lose its edge, and keep the whole picture visible enough that helping where it counts is always the easiest and most rewarding thing to do.
===RECOMMENDATION_END===
