setbid

Stewardship protocolv0 — open specification

The unit of account is time

A stewardship and marketplace protocol where a bid is not a price. To set a bid is to commit time and care to an asset — and the asset is settled to whoever the protocol judges its best steward, not its highest payer.

The thesis

Custody is a better signal than capital.

Money answers one question well — who can pay the most. It answers a different question badly: who will look after this. For shared and stewarded assets — land, archives, instruments, infrastructure, a commons of any kind — the second question is the one that matters across a long horizon.

set.bid changes the denominator. A bid is a verifiable, ongoing commitment of attention measured in hours of stewardship. The auction does not clear to the deepest pocket; it clears to the best-evidenced custodian. Price becomes a constraint, not the objective — extraction stops being the winning move.

How it works

Four steps from listing to custody.

  1. List the asset

    A holder registers an asset as a lot with a stewardship mandate — the obligations of care that custody entails, and the term over which they run. The mandate, not a reserve price, defines what is being bid for.

  2. Set a bid in time

    Each bidder pledges a schedule of stewardship-hours against the mandate, with attestations for how that time will be sourced and verified. The bid is a commitment, escrowed as obligation rather than capital.

  3. Settle to the steward

    At close, the protocol resolves the lot to the custodian whose pledged care best meets the mandate. Standing — past commitments honoured — weighs alongside the bid, so credibility compounds rather than resets.

  4. Account in the open

    Custody is held against the ledger. Hours owed and hours kept are recorded continuously; a steward who lets the mandate lapse forfeits the lot back to the pool, where it can be set for bid again.

What counts as a bid

Time, made legible.

Stewardship-hour
The protocol's unit of account. One verified hour of care directed at a lot under its mandate — maintenance, custody, repair, conservation, presence.
Mandate
The contract of care attached to a lot: what must be done, to what standard, over what term. Bids are read against it, never against a currency reserve.
Standing
A steward's record of hours pledged and hours kept. It is portable across lots, so demonstrated custody — not collateral — becomes the asset that accrues.
Forfeiture
The protocol's only sanction. Let the mandate lapse and the lot returns to the pool. There is no penalty to extract — the remedy is restoration of stewardship.

Who it is for

Anyone coordinating an asset they intend to keep.

Commons & land trusts

Allocate access to woodland, water, or shared ground by committed care rather than rent — and reclaim it cleanly when care stops.

Archives & collections

Place a fond, an instrument, or a working collection with the custodian most able to conserve it, with the obligation recorded against the lot.

Cooperatives & infrastructure

Coordinate maintenance of shared plant — tools, systems, premises — across members whose contribution is time, accounted openly.

Foundations & estates

Steward long-horizon assets through transitions where the right question is succession of care, not realisation of value.

If you hold something on behalf of others and intend to keep holding it well, the protocol is for you. set.bid is an open specification; the reference ledger is stewarded within the constellation below.