Terminology
See the glossary below for canonical definitions of every abbreviation and term used across this documentation. Terms marked with ⓘ throughout the site link back to this page.
An instruction describing a desired economic outcome prior to obligation compilation.
A Settlement Intent captures what a participant wants to become true economically — a value transferred from one domain to another — without specifying how capital will move to achieve it. Intents are compiled into Obligation Objects.
A protocol object representing an unresolved economic commitment.
An Obligation Object is the core unit of the NIL protocol. It replaces a payment instruction with a structured, tracked economic claim between an origin domain and a settlement domain, which can be netted against opposing obligations before any capital moves.
A bounded liquidity environment capable of supporting local finality.
A Settlement Domain groups liquidity by jurisdiction, currency, payment rail, or local execution capability. Obligations are routed between domains rather than between individual accounts.
An execution endpoint capable of satisfying obligations inside a Settlement Domain.
HSCs are simulated execution participants in this interface. They represent the abstract capability to convert an obligation into local economic finality within a domain — the last mile of settlement.
Evidence indicating that an execution condition has been satisfied.
A witness is a signed attestation that a Human Settlement Cell has satisfied the terms of an obligation. Witnesses are required before an obligation can transition to RESOLVED.
A discrete protocol interval during which obligation graphs are evaluated for compression.
The network does not clear continuously. At fixed intervals, the current obligation graph is locked, scanned for cycles, and compressed into a minimal residual exposure.
Unresolved exposure remaining after obligation compression.
Residual Exposure is the portion of gross obligation value that could not be cancelled against opposing obligations within an epoch, and therefore still requires external capital displacement.
The ratio between residual external capital movement and total gross obligations.
CDR = residual capital movement ÷ gross obligation value. A lower CDR indicates the network is resolving a larger share of obligations through netting rather than physical capital movement.
A permitted resolution path between two Settlement Domains.
A corridor defines whether, and under what conditions, obligations may be routed between a given origin and settlement domain pair.
The state in which an obligation no longer represents an unresolved economic commitment.
NIL defines finality not as funds having moved, but as the underlying obligation having been resolved — whether through local execution, netting, or settlement.