zaps, the Currency
The internal currency of the reputation economy. Earned by trading, spent on status, locked as skin in the game, burned as proof of belief.
Two words look the same on this platform, on purpose:
- Zaps, capital Z, is the platform.
- zaps, lowercase, always with the ⚡ glyph, is the internal currency.
zaps are earned through trading activity and spent inside the app. They fuel the reputation economy: every social action costs a little, every serious commitment locks some, and every statement of belief burns some.
That line is not fine print, it is the design. Because zaps can never be sold, their entire value comes from what they do inside Zaps, and the platform is free to make them as playful and as consequential as the product needs. zaps are kept at arm's length from $ZERU, the separate network token. There is no conversion between the two. Read zaps vs $ZERU for the full picture.
How zaps enter your balance
| Source | When |
|---|---|
| Welcome grant | The moment you first link a wallet. Computed from your real trading history and zScore, up to 100 zaps. Nobody starts from zero, because nobody's history is zero. |
| Trading | Your trades are indexed automatically and earn zaps. No claiming, no tasks. |
| Growth pool | Your clan's share of the daily Growth Leaderboard pool, split across members. |
| Referrals | Bonuses when someone you invited joins and qualifies, scaled by their quality. |
How zaps leave your balance
| Sink | Mechanic |
|---|---|
| Action fee | Every endorsement, challenge, and vouch burns a small flat fee, 2 zaps, the instant you tap. No confirmation step. |
| Clan entry fee | Set by each clan's KOL. Burned on join, refunded automatically if a private clan denies you. |
| Vouching | A permanent burn on a KOL's name. No undo, ever. |
| Self-stake | A KOL locks zaps on their own name for 30 days. Returned unless slashed. |
| Dispute stakes | Both sides of a formal dispute lock zaps. The loser's stake transfers to the winner. |
Burned zaps are destroyed, permanently. They are never recycled into a treasury or a pool. The one exception where zaps move between users is a formal dispute, where the loser's locked stake transfers to the winner.
The design rule
zaps must be spent to be useful. A balance that only sits and grows is a failed design, so every mechanic above works as a sink as much as a source. The result: your balance is a live record of participation, not a number to hoard.