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ADR-0006: Compliance Chain — Verifiable State Architecture

Date: 2026-03-02 Status: accepted Tags: compliance, governance, economics, journal, meaning-firewall Sprint: Sprint 14 (PRs #1315, #1318, #1320, #1325, #1326, #1327) Epic: #1302 — Regulatory-safe verifiable state architecture

Context

ICN was using terminology ("ledger", "payment", "balance", "currency") that mapped directly to regulated financial instruments. NY cooperative law (§93) requires internal capital accounts and patronage tracking. Legal review flagged the need for a clear audit trail linking governance decisions to execution receipts.

Decision

Four-part compliance chain shipped in Sprint 14:

  1. Terminology rename (PR #1315): payment → settlement, currency → unit, balance → position across all gateway API routes. The internal crate remains icn-ledger but user-facing text uses "state change journal" (not "ledger").

  2. Provenance chain (PR #1318): JournalEntry.provenance is now required (ProvenanceRef enum). Every state change carries a reference to the governance decision or receipt that authorized it.

  3. Obligation lifecycle (PR #1320): Obligation type with AssetType::Claim models commitments with a full lifecycle (proposed → accepted → fulfilled/expired). Not a financial instrument — a coordination primitive.

  4. PatronageTracker (PR #1325): Tracks member contributions per NY Corp Law §93 internal capital accounts. Emits patronage allocations as JournalEntry records.

  5. DelegationManager persistence (PR #1326): Delegation state gossip-synced across nodes.

  6. ExecutionReceiptGate (PR #1327): Enforces that every execution must have a linked governance decision. Closes the governance→execution linkage.

Consequences

  • Every state change is traceable to a governance authorization — full audit chain
  • Terminology is defensible in regulatory contexts (not payment rails)
  • Apps using old route names (/v1/payment/...) must migrate to /v1/settle/...
  • icn-ledger crate name is preserved for internal use; only user-visible text is changed
  • CommonsResourcePolicy (S15) extracts the credit formula to CCL — not in this ADR

Alternatives Considered

Alternative Why rejected
Keep "ledger" in user-facing text Regulatory exposure — maps to financial instrument definitions
Optional provenance Audit trail has gaps — can't prove compliance for any individual entry
Payment-style obligation model Triggers money transmission regulations
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