SIGNAL DRIFT / MECHANICS
How Signals, Fragments, Drift, extraction, and duplicate protection work.
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Collector Manual

How It Works

Recover a Signal. Decode Fragments. Burn Fragments as fuel to create Drift descendants. The archive tracks origin, lineage, generation, and duplicate protection on-chain.

3 discounted extractions1 every 30 daysloose mints can pausefinite search space
Quick Summary
3discounted Fragment extractions per Signal
30drecharge time for each new extraction
3maximum stored unused extractions
0duplicate Signals or duplicate Fragments allowed
Flow

Collector path

01
Recover a SignalMint one unique parent transmission. Duplicate Signal inputs are blocked on-chain.
02
Decode initial FragmentsEach Signal begins with three discounted Fragment extractions.
03
Wait for stabilizationAfter the first three, the Signal unlocks one new extraction every 30 days, storing up to three unused recoveries.
04
Burn + DriftEdit a Fragment by burning the origin and selected sibling fuel. The new descendant inherits lineage from the inputs.
05
Catalog descendantsEvery Drift records generation, consumed count, source Fragment, palette lineage, and modifier lineage.
Extraction Rules

Signals produce over time.

Initial Decode
Each Signal starts with 3 available discounted Fragment extractions.
Recharge
After the initial supply is used, the Signal unlocks 1 additional extraction every 30 days.
Storage
A Signal can store up to 3 unused recharge extractions.
Forever
As long as the contract remains available, a Signal can continue revealing Fragments over time.
Loose Fragments

Early fuel for the archive.

Loose Fragment minting helps seed the system before enough Signals and extracted Fragments exist. These are useful for Drift, testing lineage, and giving early collectors more material to work with.

Loose Fragment minting can pause later. Once paused, new Fragments come from Signals, not from the loose mint path.

Why it matters

The collection ages.

Early on, the archive expands quickly. Later, expansion slows into a monthly rhythm controlled by existing Signals.

Duplicate Signals

Signals are checked by a hash of their defining inputs. If the same transmission has already been recovered, the contract rejects it.

Duplicate Fragments

Fragments also carry duplicate protection. The same visual Fragment cannot be minted twice under another Signal or repeated through extraction.

Finite Possibilities

The search space is huge, but not infinite. Every successful recovery reduces the unknown. Every Drift records a new descendant.

Burn + Drift

Editing has a cost and a history.

A Drift is created by editing an origin Fragment and burning selected fuel Fragments. Fuel increases edit power and contributes color DNA.

The new Fragment records the origin, consumed count, generation, palette lineage, and inherited modifier history.

A Drift does not erase its inputs. It records them as ancestry.
Recovered Languages

Palette lineage is part of the artifact.

When Fragments from different palettes are used as fuel, the descendant can carry a hybrid language such as:

Spain / MEowMEow / XCOPY

This is the visible record of what was used to construct the descendant.

Boot

Boot detaches a Fragment from a Signal, making it loose. The Fragment keeps its own history, but it is no longer anchored to that Signal.

Censor / Admin

The admin tools exist for edge cases: censoring unsafe states, locking edits, or locking a wallet if necessary. Censored Fragments remain part of the historical record.