Property Rules Timing

Timing property rules

Apply the rule for the property currently being evaluated. Cross-cutting rules in scripts/research-prompts.ts still apply.

Time-to-finality

For pure application-layer contracts deployed on an existing chain (no protocol-level settlement step of their own), the value is "Underlying chain" — finality is inherited from the host chain rather than added by the protocol. List the deployed networks in the notes.

For zkRollups, validity-proof rollups, and any L2/L3 with its own settlement cadence — an Aztec transaction, for example, is not final until its epoch proof is verified on L1 — the value is the worst-case time to L1 verification (in seconds): one epoch length is the usual upper bound for the rollup's own delay. Add Ethereum L1 finality (~13 minutes) as a separate note since the proof transaction's own inclusion also needs to finalise. Use "Underlying chain" only when the protocol genuinely has no settlement step distinct from its host chain.

When such a rollup or validium has its own settlement step but no published batch or epoch cadence — a permissioned validium whose operator configures the interval privately, for example — do not invent a seconds figure and do not emit INSUFFICIENT_DATA. Use "Underlying chain" as the conservative value and set needsResearchReview naming the missing cadence (e.g. "batch cadence operator-configurable and unpublished, so a seconds-to-L1-verification figure is not knowable"). Describe such a chain as an L2/L3 that settles to its host chain, never as an L1.

Deposit time

For L1 protocols without a distinct deposit concept, use N/A. For an application-layer protocol whose deposit (shield, burn, wrap, encrypt) is an ordinary on-chain transaction with no protocol-imposed waiting period — no queue, challenge window, or time-lock — use 0; host-chain block or settlement latency is not a deposit waiting period. For an off-chain routing or aggregator service with no separate deposit-then-withdraw step (deposit, route, and deliver happen in one flow), use N/A and say in notes the property does not really apply (VALUE_FORMAT_RULES #3).

Withdraw time

For L1 protocols without a distinct withdraw concept, use N/A. For an application-layer protocol whose withdraw (unshield, redeem, claim, decrypt) is an ordinary on-chain transaction with no protocol-imposed waiting period — no queue, exit or challenge window, or time-lock — use 0; host-chain block or settlement latency is not a withdraw waiting period. For an off-chain routing or aggregator service with no separate deposit-then-withdraw step, use N/A and say in notes the property does not really apply (VALUE_FORMAT_RULES #3).

Implementation maturity

Verify mainnet deployment per VALUE_FORMAT_RULES #1. Do not state a specific launch month or date without a citation (block-explorer first transaction, dated announcement post, audit report) — if you cannot source it, give the maturity bracket and say the exact date is not documented rather than asserting one. For non-contract services (routing aggregators, hosted privacy layers), measure maturity from documented service launch / public availability (uptime), not from a contract deployment, and say so in the notes.

Staged launches. When a protocol has a multi-phase launch — a coordination / governance / settlement chain goes live before user-facing transfers are enabled (e.g. Aztec Ignition Chain Nov 2025 as the coordination layer vs Alpha as the user-facing execution layer in 2026) — measure tenure from the date user-facing transfers actually became possible, not from the earliest coordination-layer go-live. If only the earlier coordination-layer date is in cited spans and the user-facing date is not, you may still use the earlier date as a lower bound for the tier but the notes must distinguish what each date covers; do NOT call the coordination-layer launch "mainnet" if it did not yet process user transfers.

Typed citation pair. Implementation maturity carries at least two citations that together prove the deployment date:

1. Docs / announcement citation — source is the protocol's own docs page or dated announcement that names the deployment. When the protocol deploys a contract on an existing chain, this citation carries contract_address (the hex / program-id string that the docs name as the canonical deployment). When the protocol is itself a chain (L1, L2, alt-L1), contract_address is omitted — the citation just proves "this is the announcement of the deployment".
2. Explorer / first-tx citation — source is the chain explorer's address page (for contract protocols, e.g. etherscan.io/address/0x…) OR the explorer's first-block / chain-launch page (for L1s and L2s). This citation carries date: "YYYY-MM-DD" (the deployment / first-tx / chain-genesis date) AND, when applicable, the same contract_address as the docs citation so reviewers can trace that the same address shows in both.

Reviewer flow: click the docs citation → confirm the protocol claims this is their deployment; click the explorer citation → confirm the explorer page shows that address (or the chain genesis) on date. If contract_address is set, the same hex string must appear in both citations' source URLs (mechanical check at review time, not enforced by lint).

For protocols without a usable chain explorer (some alt-L1s, off-chain services), set needsResearchReview naming the missing dated-evidence channel rather than inventing one — do not fall back to bare prose citations to satisfy the typed-date requirement.