How NULL works
The full lifecycle, from a deposit landing in a reserve to a payment leaving it.
The whole protocol is one loop. Money goes into a reserve, rules get attached to that reserve, you get rights against it, you say what you want to happen, the protocol checks your right, and the reserve pays out. Nothing gets assigned to you at any point.
Six stages, one movement of value. The first two build the reserve. The middle three are the only parts you touch. The last one pays the payee straight out of the reserve, which is why nothing ever lands in an account with your name on it.
The six stages
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Money enters the reserve
People deposit assets into a shared reserve. The moment they land, they stop being anyone's in particular. There's no "your share" recorded, because the protocol doesn't keep one. Deposits →
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Rules are set on the reserve
What can be spent, by whom, under what conditions. The rules live on the reserve instead of on a person, which is the only place they can live when there are no accounts. Reserve policy →
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You're granted spending rights
Not tokens. A cryptographic right to spend up to a certain amount from the reserve, under those rules. Nothing arrives in a wallet, because nothing is sent to you. Spending rights →
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You say what you want to happen
Pay someone, swap something, call a contract. You describe the outcome. You never sign for or move the underlying tokens. Intents →
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The protocol checks your right
Is it real, is it unused, does it cover what you're asking for, and do the reserve's rules still allow it? If any of those fail, nothing happens. Verification →
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The reserve pays
Money goes from the reserve to the payee. Since nothing was ever sent to you, nothing has to be sent from you. Settlement →
What actually moves
This is the bit worth being precise about, because most people arrive assuming it works like a transfer.
| What moves | What never moves |
|---|---|
| Money, from the reserve to the payee, once. | Money, into any account of yours. Not even briefly. |
| A right, granted to you and used up when you spend. | Tokens, in either direction, at any point. |
| A proof, from you to the protocol. | A key to a stored balance, because there isn't one. |
Why the order matters
Rules go on the reserve before anyone gets rights against it, and rights get checked before anything pays out. That's what makes the rules real rather than a promise: you can't be granted a right the rules don't allow, and you can't use one without it being checked.
It also means the questions worth asking aren't about payments. They're about what a reserve's rules say and who gets to change them, which is what Reserve policy and the NULL token are about.