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Cards, price feeds, registries, relays, and solvers help coordinate a route. Only the contract you derive and fund enforces settlement.

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What Binds

Everything before funding is advisory. Registry entries go stale, feeds can be wrong, advertisements are self-asserted, relays can drop messages, and a bid commits nothing. None of them can move funds; the worst a bad one costs is a failed attempt or a worse price. A signed quote binds the solver’s terms for its validity window, not completion. In an asset market nothing binds before funding. After funding, the contract decides the outcomes.

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Deriving the Contract

The client builds every settlement contract itself. Anything a solver returns is comparison data; a mismatch stops the flow. Each input comes from the party entitled to assert it:

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Enforceability on Bitcoin

Consensus-enforceable paths use only signatures, hashlocks, and timelocks, which Bitcoin itself verifies. They keep the standard Arkade trust model: preconfirmed until the batch settles, enforceable through unilateral exit. Emulator-enforced paths let a party stay offline. Their constraints use Arkade opcodes that Bitcoin consensus does not recognize, so the operator runs the path’s Arkade Script before it cosigns each spend. Bitcoin checks only signatures, so Bitcoin consensus cannot enforce the guarantee. The path relies on the operator running the code its enclave attests to, and if the operator will not sign, the path is unavailable. Treat these paths as a convenience. Where a profile offers both kinds, its consensus-enforceable paths do not rely on Arkade Script, and the exit path stays the fallback.

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Corridor Routes

Two properties are specific to this trust model: the full invoice reaches only the selected solver, and the solver can claim the lockup only after learning the preimage by paying the invoice. A published request reveals its pair and size to the relays. An addressed request hides its content but not its metadata. Signed bids and quotes prove who committed to what; they do not bond performance. The receive service waits for the client to claim, so the wallet stays online for that step.

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Product Policy

An application may pin solvers, follow curated registries, or allow open discovery. Contract guarantees are identical in every case; selection and ranking are application policy, and competition does not guarantee best execution. Protocol, solver, client, and wallet work ship independently — see Implementation Status.

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