Reference for content linking in the Elohim Protocol — how links carry knowledge, value, and governance context, how they adapt to where the learner is, and how verified content addressing works. Use when authoring content links, explaining the architecture, creating content with verified fingerprints, or helping developers understand context-aware linking.
When explaining these concepts, lead with the human experience. Technical terms are tools, not the point. See the Glossary at the bottom for plain-language definitions of every technical term.
Every content link in this system carries three things:
You cannot create a link without all three. This is structural — the system enforces it. The architecture makes it difficult to circulate knowledge without recognizing stewards, and difficult to apply rules without knowing what knowledge is affected.
Unattributed content doesn't vanish — it flows to the commons. When no steward attests, the constitutional governance layer takes responsibility and value flows to the community pool. This solves the cold-start problem: content enters and circulates immediately. When a steward later attests ("I wrote this," "I maintain this"), value redirects to them. The incentive is natural: find your content, attest to your care, and the value flows — otherwise it serves the world under community stewardship.
Content delivery triggers an REA (Resource-Event-Agent) economic event — not a financial transaction, but a protocol-level acknowledgment. Recognition flows proportionally to stewards per their allocation ratios. Value is denominated in token types that match the kind of contribution:
| Token | Generated by | Decays? |
|---|---|---|
| Learning | Educational content that helps others | No |
| Care | Witnessed caregiving acts | Yes |
| Steward | Maintaining/protecting resources | Yes |
| Infrastructure | Network maintenance | Yes (fast) |
Each community defines circulation rules (decay rates, accumulation limits, dignity thresholds) in their constitutional documents. The StewardshipAllocationView tracks recognitionAccumulated per steward per content item.
Key files:
elohim-app/src/app/elohim/models/rea-bridge.model.tsholochain/sdk/storage-client-ts/dist/generated/StewardshipAllocationView.d.tsholochain/sdk/storage-client-ts/dist/generated/EconomicEventView.d.tsThe same link resolves differently depending on where the learner is:
This is the system's most novel feature. Traditional links always go to the same destination. These links adapt to context.
The resolver is a pure function — it never fetches data itself. The caller passes in:
epr:fair-exchange)This keeps the protocol layer independent of the learning domain. The protocol doesn't know about learning paths — it just resolves based on the context it's given.
Key file: elohim-app/src/app/elohim/services/epr-resolver.service.ts
1. Current path contains the target → stay in path ("in-path")
2. Another path contains the target → cross-reference ("cross-path")
3. Neither → standalone resource view ("standalone")
Every piece of content has a small (~500 byte) metadata envelope that can be shared by word-of-mouth networking between computers. It contains:
+--------------------------------------------------+
| "Foundations of Fair Exchange" |
| |
| Knowledge: |
| Type: concept Format: article |
| Tags: economics, fairness |
| |
| Stewardship: |
| Stewards: Alice (60%), Bob (40%) |
| Token type: learning |
| |
| Governance: |
| Access: open to everyone |
| Authority: community-level |
| |
| Connections: |
| Teaches → "mutual credit" |
| Requires → "value flows" |
| |
| Content fingerprint: bafyrei... |
+--------------------------------------------------+
The envelope serializes in a compact binary format for efficient transmission, but auto-detects and accepts plain text format too for backward compatibility.
Key files:
elohim-app/src/app/elohim/models/epr-head.model.tselohim-app/src/app/elohim/utils/epr-codec.tsholochain/elohim-storage/src/epr_codec.rsContent links use the epr: prefix followed by the content's readable name: