Glossary

Proof of Execution Context PoEC

A Proof of Execution Context (PoEC) is a cryptographically signed attestation of the structural regime of blockchain infrastructure at a given time. It is produced by the Invarians oracle and consumed by autonomous agents before executing on-chain operations.

The question it answers

Is this chain operating within its normal structural parameters?

l1_state

Structural regime of the L1 chain — S1D1 · S1D2 · S2D1 · S2D2

l2_state

Structural regime of the L2 chain — S1D1 · S1D2 · S2D1 · S2D2

bridge_state

Operational state of the bridge — BS1 · BS2

pattern_key

Composite key L1 × L2 × Bridge — maps to Pattern Reference

signature

HMAC-SHA256 — verifiable integrity, TTL 1 hour

A PoEC is not a recommendation. Invarians certifies a state. The agent applies its own execution policy.

Structural Regime SxDx

A structural regime describes the operating state of a blockchain over a structural time window (~1 hour). It is not an event. It is a certified state of the infrastructure substrate, derived from two independent axes: τ (structural rhythm) and π (demand pressure).

S1D1

τ normal · π normal

Nominal. Infrastructure operating within structural baseline. ~95% of observed Ethereum time.

S1D2

τ normal · π elevated

Demand surge. Chain structure is healthy — absorbing elevated economic pressure.

S2D1

τ degraded · π normal

Structural stress without economic signature. Invisible to gas monitors. The most operationally significant regime for autonomous agents.

S2D2

τ degraded · π elevated

Systemic congestion. All layers under load simultaneously. ~0.2% of observed Ethereum time.

The regime is measured over a calibrated window using an EMA (α = 0.1818, N ≈ 10 samples) with 3-confirmation hysteresis. A regime change takes ~3 hours to confirm. MEV, arbitrage, and short-term fee spikes do not create false regime changes.

S2D1 The invisible failure mode

S2D1 is the most operationally significant regime for autonomous agents. It describes structural degradation (S2) with no apparent demand pressure (D1). No gas spike. No mempool congestion. No fee monitor alert. The chain appears calm at the surface.

Why S2D1 exists

Post-EIP-4844, L1 basefee is structurally decoupled from L2 activity. Sequencer incidents, finalization anomalies, and structural stress can occur with no gas signature. Every conventional monitor stays silent. Invarians detects S2D1 through structural invariant measurement — not fee observation.

S2D1 has been observed during:

Sep 2022

Ethereum Merge — structural transition, no demand signal

Apr 2023

Ethereum Shanghai upgrade

Multiple

Solana outage events — sequencer-level structural stress

An autonomous agent acting during S2D1 without a PoEC is acting on incomplete information.

Infrastructure-Aware Agent

An infrastructure-aware agent is an autonomous on-chain agent that consumes a certified execution context before deciding to execute, defer, or reroute. It does not rely solely on gas price or mempool depth. It reads the structural regime of the infrastructure it operates on.

# The agent reads the certified state
ctx = client.get_execution_context(l1="ethereum", l2="arbitrum")

# The agent applies its own policy
if ctx.proof.l1_regime == "S1D1" and ctx.proof.bridge_state == "BS1":
    agent.proceed()
elif ctx.proof.l1_regime == "S2D1":
    agent.defer(reason="structural stress detected")
else:
    agent.reroute()
        

Bridge State BSx

The operational state of a cross-chain bridge, measured independently from the L1/L2 structural regime. Bridge state is measured on a shorter window (5–15 min polling) because bridges can transition from healthy to congested faster than a structural regime change.

BS1

Operational — relay latency and message backlog within nominal range

BS2

Degraded — latency or backlog exceeding baseline thresholds

Stale Policy

An attestation becomes stale when the oracle has not refreshed its data within the expected window. The SDK exposes a stale_action field and an optional stale_policy="raise" mode.

oracle_status	Age	stale_action	Recommended behavior
OK	< 1h	`ok`	Proceed normally
STALE	1h – 2h	`caution`	Use with awareness
STALE	> 2h	`wait`	Do not act on this attestation

Pattern Reference

The Pattern Reference is a historical record of all 32 possible execution contexts (4 L1 regimes × 4 L2 regimes × 2 bridge states), with observed frequencies and documented events for each combination. It is non-prescriptive — the agent reads the PoEC, consults the Pattern Reference, and applies its own policy.

S1D1

95.4% of observed Ethereum time — baseline

S2D1

3.0% — ETH Merge, Shanghai upgrade, SOL outages

S1D2

1.7% — DeFi Summer, NFT Mania, ETF demand March 2024

S2D2

0.2% — Maximum systemic congestion

τ and π The two measurement axes

The SxDx regime is derived from two independent axes, measured separately and combined to produce a four-state classification.

τ (tau)

Structural rhythm. Block production cadence and continuity. Measures whether the chain is producing blocks at its expected rate with expected finalization patterns. τ is not gas price. A degraded τ can occur with no visible economic signature.

π (pi)

Demand pressure. Economic load on the chain — transaction volume, fee pressure, and demand relative to calibrated baseline. π can be elevated while τ remains healthy (typical demand surge scenario).