Settlement Domains

Definition

A Settlement Domain (LD) is a bounded liquidity environment capable of supporting local finality — grouped by currency, jurisdiction, payment rail, or local execution capability. Domains are identified with codes such as LD-EU-FR or LD-AP-JP.

Capability Advertisement

Domains periodically publish a signed capability record describing available liquidity, open obligation count, and current exposure:

DomainCapability {
  domainId: DomainID
  currency: CurrencyCode
  availableLiquidity: Decimal
  openObligations: Integer
  exposure: SignedDecimal
  status: BALANCED | SURPLUS | DEFICIT
}

Routers treat availableLiquidity as advisory. Actual capacity is re-validated at the point of Human Settlement Cell assignment, since a domain's liquidity position can change between advertisement and execution.

Status

A domain's status reflects its net exposure across open obligations: SURPLUS domains are structural net exporters of value, DEFICIT domains are net importers, and BALANCED domains sit within tolerance of zero net exposure. Persistent deficit or surplus is the signal that triggers liquidity rebalancing (14).