DocsThe brain
What kind of thing it is
brain/chapters/what-kind-of-thing-it-is.mdBrain status: partial
Allow several labels at once. A network can be a protocol, token community and DAO, with a foundation alongside it. A petal can be a contract, multisig and delegate. These are starting words, not a closed list.
- Separate three questions. What is its technical form? What role does it perform here? What organisational, legal or social nature does it declare? A treasury role does not identify a legal owner; a foundation claim needs documentary evidence. A wallet does not prove one individual human. Add new types when useful, with their meaning and evidence.
- Inspect the known address on its chain. EVM code alone is insufficient: EIP-7702 allows EOAs to delegate code. For a Safe, confirm the implementation and read owners and threshold; matching method names alone is not confirmation. Modules create other control paths. For a Governor, match source, deployed version and calls before naming its governance form.
- Use each chain's own account model. NEAR accounts may have code and access keys. Confirm Sputnik code and policy, or staking-pool implementation and methods, before assigning those types. Solana accounts have an owning program, data and an executable flag: program ownership is not human ownership, and a non-executable account is not automatically an ordinary wallet. Known-address public reads do not discover every related account; endpoint access may be restricted.
- Keep sourced labels distinct from deductions. Public labels such as Dune Spellbook’s, or an organisation page, supply sourced leads with authors and dates. “Looks like an exchange wallet” is an inference needing supporting evidence, not an identity fact. Funding a known exchange address does not by itself establish exchange control. No match, failed reads or missing labels leave the type unknown.
- Save the claim and its bounds. For a verified chain reading, say “a Safe, 2 of 3, at block X,” naming unread control paths. Use a
notedannotation with type and explanation inobject.value:sourcedfor an attributed source, orinferredwith a versioned method andgrounds: research. Followadd_annotation's typed-evidence schema; preserve chain, address, block or slot, source and discovery date. Arbitrary types do not belong in the closedlabelledtags.
look_up is a starting point. A reading's participants already carry a kind, the reader's own word from the address (an organisation for a .sputnik-dao.near account, unknown for most): a starting point, not a type. Check get_network before get_snapshot: sputnik-dao supplies member/activity data, not complete classification. read_chain is EVM-only; calls cannot select historical blocks. No universal classifier is established. Other reads need available tools. Supply data; leave display choices to the person.