📡 Signals

A protocol for surfacing and prioritizing community objectives

We will be at the d/acc residency in Patagonia! 🏔️hosted by Protocol Labs and running some field tests. Please reach out if you will be there!

Intoduction

Signals is a new coordination protocol for decentralized communities. It enables participants to lock governance tokens behind initiatives they believe in, surfacing real-time sentiment and collective intent before formal governance or funding decisions take place.

Signals lets communities explore ideas fluidly, observe where alignment emerges, and experiment with incentive-aligned decision discovery.

You can learn more about the mechanics here:

• Initial Idea, https://mirror.xyz/lighthousegov.eth/M2MQV8O-AOoLW9RAK3zpsRSHZ2vsp9CRlaOPgUbpyHQ
• Primer, https://mirror.xyz/lighthousegov.eth/yOY3vgiiE5HfPbUNLSbYUpjICDA3SrcJkQVEjTPiQR4
• Incentive Design, https://mirror.xyz/lighthousegov.eth/mEZhb9Nwav_ZpwrvOAKCxzmJFbsez-jow9t2b4mjc2k

Original demo → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKchm2MFXWA

Why Signals?

Existing on-chain governance systems are slow, intimidating, and dominated by whales.

Signals was designed to address these challenges:

• Continuous discovery — surface ideas early, before proposal lock-in
• Conviction signaling — longer token locks carry more weight
• Fairness — small holders can match whale influence through time commitment
• Pre-vote feedback — measure support dynamics before governance execution
• Optional incentives — allow sponsors to reward aligned participation

Signals helps communities listen to themselves — revealing which directions have genuine collective energy.

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Contributor Guide

Review the Repository Guidelines before proposing changes.

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Edge City Claim (optional)

To enable the Edge City residency claim flow in the interface:

• NEXT_PUBLIC_EDGE_CITY=true
• EDGE_OS_API_KEY=... and optionally EDGE_OS_BASE_URL=https://api-citizen-portal.simplefi.tech
• EDGE_CITY_SIGNER_PRIVATE_KEY=0x... (server-side key used to sign claim allowances)
• EDGE_CITY_DEFAULT_CLAIM_AMOUNT_WEI=1000000000000000000
• EDGE_CITY_AMOUNT_PER_DAY_WEI=... (optional; overrides default amount when residency days are present)
• EDGE_CITY_ALLOWANCE_TTL_SECONDS=86400 (optional; defaults to 24 hours)

Flow overview:

1. The user authenticates with EdgeOS; the server validates residency (email verification plus popup/total-day rules).
2. The server signs an EIP-712 allowance tying together the wallet, participant ID, amount, and expiry and returns it to the client.
3. The UI submits claim(address to, uint256 participantId, uint256 amount, uint256 deadline, bytes signature) on the ExperimentToken.

EIP-712 domain: name = "ExperimentToken", version = "1", chainId, verifyingContract = token address. Struct type:

Claim(address to,uint256 participantId,uint256 amount,uint256 deadline)

Keep the allowance signer key secure; rotate it by calling setAllowanceSigner on-chain and updating EDGE_CITY_SIGNER_PRIVATE_KEY. Short TTLs reduce the blast radius if an access token leaks.

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⚙️ How It Works

1. Deploy a Board

   • Any community can deploy a board via the Signals factory.
   • Configure parameters:
     • Governance token (ERC20)
     • Max initiatives & duration
     • Acceptance threshold
     • Minimum tokens to propose
     • Decay style (linear / exponential)

2. Propose Initiatives

   • Participants propose initiatives (drafts, ideas, or full proposals).
   • Each includes metadata (title, markdown body, optional attachments).

3. Signal Support

   • Members lock tokens in support of initiatives.
   • Weight = amount × lock duration × decay factor.
   • Locks cannot be withdrawn until expiration or acceptance.

4. Acceptance & Refunds

   • Once support passes the threshold, the initiative is accepted.
   • Supporters are refunded their tokens automatically.

5. Incentives (Optional)

   • Anyone can escrow rewards (e.g., USDC) for an initiative.
   • If the initiative is accepted, rewards distribute proportionally to supporters.

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Glossary

Concept	Description
Board	A configured governance surface for a token community
Initiative	A proposed idea or draft to gauge support
Lock	Time-bound commitment of tokens in favor of an initiative
Decay	Reduction in bonus weight over time (ensures timeliness)
Threshold	Minimum aggregate support for acceptance
Sponsorship	Token-backed endorsement by peers or delegates
Reward Pool	Optional escrow that pays out upon acceptance

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🚀 Getting Started

Local Development

# tty0 – Local chain
anvil --block-time 5

# tty1 – Setup local environment (contracts, mocks, etc.)
bash scripts/dev.sh

# tty2 – Start indexer
cd apps/indexers
pnpm dev