Development
Timeline

GENESIS BLOCK — 2026-03-15 18:00:00 UTC. ConvergenceX Proof-of-Work chain live. Solo mining begins with C++ reference miner. Constitutional rules encoded at genesis. Chain starts. The genesis block is self-sufficient: it requires only a miner and a timestamp.

PUBLIC LAUNCH. BTCTalk ANN thread. CEX listing request submitted. C++ miner released. GitHub repository public. Community mining begins. C++ miner released. GitHub repository public. Community mining begins.

V13 hard fork. Block 12,000: cASERT equalizer E7-H35 active, DTD lottery cooldown 5 → 6, future-timestamp drift cap 60 s → 30 s, Beacon Phase II-A / II-B / III (advisory-only). Block 12,100: DTD cadence flips from 2-of-3 bootstrap to 1-of-3 permanent (automatic) and the anti-dominance gate activates — any address with ≥ 10 % share of the previous 288 blocks is excluded from the DTD lottery until its rolling share drops below 10 % (eligibility also requires an SbPoW-signed block, most recent block at height ≥ 7,100). Dominant miners keep their 50 % miner share. See docs/V13_DTD_DOMINANCE_GATE.md.

V14 hard fork. Phase I governance + automation block. Activates: Gold Vault Phase I (90 % miner threshold, +10 % quality boost or single-signer veto from developer/genesis, silence = accept, 67 + 10 block sequential window, 1,000 SOST per spend, 5,000 SOST per rolling week, single destination = genesis miner); PoPC Model A chain-state migration (out of popc_registry.json, into deterministic UTXO/chain-state); PoPC Model A auto-audit + auto-slash + auto-settlement (initial grace period 1,000 blocks); DTD-PoPC eligibility gate flips to true (from V14_HEIGHT, DTD lottery requires holding at least one ACTIVE canonical PoPC contract); Beacon II-A real operator pubkey (replaces fail-closed placeholder); threshold sync 95 % → 90 %. Conditional in V14: atomic swap HTLC activates only if the libwally-core sprint and testnet pass before block 15,000; PoPC Model B "supervised mode" (manual operator verification of user-declared Ethereum contracts until V15 brings the Ethereum event-listener automation). Atomic swap full audit deferred to V15. Block 15,000 is an internal target — retractable without public drama if testnet fails.

DTD emergency pause/resume — designed, consensus-deferred. A consensus-safe emergency brake for the DTD lottery is designed and unit-tested but ships inactive (no consensus change). It is a signed control signal (SOST_DTD_CONTROL_V1) verified by every node against the Beacon 3-of-5 operator custody — never a local password, VPS or admin toggle. When active it can only pause DTD redistribution (blocks revert to the normal 50 % miner / 25 % Gold Vault / 25 % PoPC split) and later resume it. It cannot mint coins, change Proof-of-Work, alter the miner's 50 % reward, or move balances. Activation is a single-constant flip under a future announced fork, after the DTD coinbase is consensus-wired. See docs/DTD_EMERGENCY_PAUSE_RESUME_DESIGN.md.

Gold purchases begin (no earlier than 8 months after public launch, per rule G4). First XAUT/PAXG acquired via TWAP pipeline. Reserve Vault deployed on Ethereum mainnet. Subject to sufficient SOST market liquidity.

PoPC Model A + B launch. First custody contracts active. Bond system operational. ConvergenceX entropy audits begin. Escrow contracts deployed.

Physical gold extension. Mobile app for audit challenges. Verifier network operational. Users commit custody of physical bars, coins, and ingots.

Zero-Knowledge research initiative. Physical proof system R&D. This technology will only be deployed if and when the required cryptographic primitives reach production-grade maturity and demonstrate provable security guarantees under formal verification. Physical custody verification without identity disclosure remains an open research problem — SOST commits to pursuing it without compromising participant safety or deploying partial solutions.

ZK physical custody proofs. Full privacy-preserving audit system. Extends to platinum, palladium, rhodium. No identity, location, or quantity on-chain. Subject to successful completion of ZK R&D milestones. Deployment contingent on achieving zero-knowledge proofs that meet SOST’s non-negotiable security requirements for physical custody verification. Timeline is aspirational and will not be accelerated at the expense of cryptographic rigor.

Heritage Reserve. Gold sealed by default. Emergency dual-gate if needed. Chain runs on fees after emission approaches zero. Protocol operates perpetually under constitutional rules encoded at genesis.