Trust Ledger Utilization Fees

What is Trust Ledger Utilization

To verify a credential presented by the individual is trustworthy the relying party must call the on-chain trust ledger.

Keys held in DID documents and stored on-chain in the trust ledger and used for verifying the identities of Issuers, Holders, and Subjects and the attestations made within a particular credential.

Design Objectives

The Velocity Network is designed to support long-term, enterprise-grade usage while allowing the $VLCT token to appreciate as network adoption and economic value grow.

The Trust Ledger Utilization Fee pricing model is therefore designed to satisfy four core objectives:

  1. Preserve $VLCT appreciation as the network becomes more valuable.

  2. Prevent runaway verification fees that would price out real users.

  3. Avoid fiat-pegged pricing, so fees remain natively connected to the $VLCT economy.

  4. Remain predictable and contract-friendly for enterprises.

To achieve this, Velocity uses a sub-linear, token-native fee model with strong dampening and no fixed fiat cap.

Overview of the Model

The fiat value of a Trust Ledger Utilization Fee increases as:

  • The price of $VLCT increases, and

  • The overall usage of the network increases,

However, fee growth is sub-linear, meaning that increases in token price result in progressively smaller increases in fiat cost per verification.

Fees are not fixed in fiat terms, but are also not allowed to scale linearly, ensuring long-term usability.

Reference Values

At protocol relaunch or governance reset, the following reference values are defined:

  • Reference token price R0​: $VLCT price at the reference point (e.g. launch) = $0.10

  • Base Trust Ledger Utilization Fee PER CREDENTIAL F0​: fee in $VLCT tokens at R0 = 5 $VLCT

  • Base fiat cost: C0=F0⋅R0

This establishes the economic starting point of the system.

Dynamic Variables

At any time t, the protocol observes:

  • Current $VLCT price Rt​, computed using a time-weighted average price (TWAP)

The normalized growth ratio is then computed:

x=Rt/R0(price growth)

Sub-Linear Fee Growth

This creates a strongly dampened growth curve, ensuring that fees increase gradually even under significant token appreciation.

α∈(0,1): price dampening factor

Value default for Career Credentials: α=0.4

Identity Document Credentials (Special Category)

Certain credential types, such as identity documents (e.g., passports, government IDs), require higher frequency usage and broader accessibility.

To ensure these remain highly affordable and scalable, a stronger dampening factor is applied.

Value default for Identity Credentials: α=0.1

This significantly slows fee growth, making identity verifications:

  • More stable in fiat terms

  • More suitable for high-volume, regulated use cases

Fiat Fee Calculation

The uncapped fiat cost of a verification is:

Ct​=C0​⋅xα=0.50⋅x0.4 (or 0.1 for career credentials)

This means:

  • Fees increase as $VLCT appreciates

  • Growth slows over time due to sub-linear scaling

  • No hard cap is imposed, but growth remains controlled

Token Amount Paid per Verification

The actual fee paid on-chain is denominated in $VLCT:

Ft=Ct/Rt

As $VELOCITY appreciates:

  • The fiat cost per verification rises gradually

  • The number of $VLCT tokens required per verification decreases

This reflects the increasing value of each token, while maintaining stable economic behavior for users.

Price Scenarios

Career Credentials Price Scenarios

$VLCT Price
Multiple
Fiat Fee
Tokens Paid

$0.10

$0.50

5.00

$0.20

$0.66

3.29

$0.50

$0.95

1.90

$1.00

10×

$1.26

1.26

$2.00

20×

$1.66

0.83

$5.00

50×

$2.39

0.48

$10.00

100×

$3.15

0.32

$20.00

200×

$4.16

0.21

$50.00

500×

$6.02

0.12

$100.00

1000×

$7.92

0.08


Identity Credentials Price Scenarios

$VLCT Price
Multiple
Fiat Fee
Tokens Paid

$0.10

$0.50

5.00

$0.20

$0.54

2.70

$0.50

$0.59

1.18

$1.00

10×

$0.63

0.63

$2.00

20×

$0.67

0.34

$5.00

50×

$0.75

0.15

$10.00

100×

$0.79

0.08

$20.00

200×

$0.85

0.04

$50.00

500×

$0.93

0.02

$100.00

1000×

$1.00

0.01


How to read the table

Standard credentials:

  • Start at $0.50

  • Grow gradually to ~$3–$6 across large price increases

  • Provide meaningful value capture as the network scales

Identity credentials:

  • Also start at $0.50

  • Grow very slowly

  • Remain below ~$1 even under extreme token appreciation

Economic Interpretation

This dual-structure model ensures:

  • Standard credentials capture increasing economic value as the network matures

  • Identity credentials remain accessible and scalable for mass adoption use cases

Over time, value capture shifts from:

  • “more tokens per transaction”

to:

  • “higher transaction volume, broader adoption, and staking demand”

Why This Is Not Fiat-Pegged

  • Fees are dynamically derived from $VLCT price

  • There is no fixed fiat pricing mechanism

  • $VLCT remains the native unit of settlement

The system maintains a fully token-native pricing model, with controlled growth through dampening rather than external pegging.

Summary

The Trust Ledger Utilization fee model:

  • Uses sub-linear pricing with strong dampening (α = 0.4)

  • Applies category-specific pricing (α = 0.1 for identity credentials)

  • Avoids fiat pegs and hard caps

  • Ensures long-term enterprise usability while preserving token value capture

Trust Ledger Utilization fees start at $0.50 and grow sub-linearly with token value, with stronger dampening for identity credentials, ensuring both enterprise affordability and long-term economic scalability without relying on fiat caps.

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