How Capital Deployment Units work

Money is one form of productive capital. Ventures also run on time, labour, professional expertise, customers, preorders, equipment, materials, space, distribution, introductions, credibility, endorsements, institutional partnerships, data, knowledge, and permissions.

Capital Deployment Units (CDUs) answer a single question: how much useful capital has this venture mobilized and put to work? They do not measure what the venture produced — that is the separate Return Stack.

1. Estimated Capital Equivalent — the approximate market, replacement, rental, or purchase value of capital where a reasonable financial estimate exists. Estimated Capital Equivalent reflects the approximate replacement or market value of certain resources contributed to a venture. It is an informational estimate and may not reflect tax, accounting, or legal value.
2. Capital Deployment Units — one unified measure covering both financially measurable and nonfinancial capital.
3. Capital Stack Completion — the weighted percentage of a venture's identified capital needs that have been fulfilled.
4. Return Stack — the results created after capital is deployed. Never combined into the CDU total.

Capital requested → capital committed → capital deployed → capital verified → work completed → returns created.

Offered and committed capital is never included in the deployed total. Each stage is reported separately.

• Offered — Proposed by a contributor, not yet accepted.
• Committed — Accepted by the organizer, not yet delivered.
• Deployed — Delivered, completed, or put into service.
• Verified — Confirmed by both parties or supported by evidence.
• Withdrawn — Withdrawn by the contributor before deployment.
• Declined — Declined by the organizer.
• Disputed — Fulfilment is disputed by one party.
• Reversed — Previously deployed, later reversed or refunded.

Every category converts through a published, versioned platform standard. The base standard is $100 of estimated capital equivalent = 1 CDU, and it is configurable by platform administrators only — never by organizers or contributors.

• Direct financial value — $100 delivered = 1 CDU.
• Hourly standard — 2 general participation hours = 1 CDU.
• Skill band — Skilled, specialized, and licensed hour bands.
• Replacement value — $500 in verified materials = 5 CDUs.
• Rental equivalent — $300 rental value = 3 CDUs.
• Use-day — 1 approved equipment day = 1 CDU.
• Completed action — 1 completed qualified introduction = 1 CDU.
• Verified commitment — 1 verified institutional partner = 3 CDUs.
• Customer conversion — 5 verified customer commitments = 1 CDU.
• Custom administrative standard — Defined by platform administrators.

When a standard changes, existing contributions keep the rule version they were calculated under. Historical totals are never recalculated with a newer rule.

• Financial capital — $100 delivered = 1 CDU.
• Time and participation — 2 completed hours = 1 CDU.
• Talent and expertise — skilled hour = 1 CDU, specialized technical hour = 1.5 CDUs, licensed professional hour = 2 CDUs. Personal billing rates are not used by default.
• Tools and assets — documented rental equivalent at $100 = 1 CDU, or 1 approved use-day = 1 CDU.
• Space and facilities — comparable rental value, or approved space-use sessions.
• Materials — documented purchase or replacement value.
• Customer and demand capital — paid preorders count once at their paid value; 5 verified advance-customer commitments = 1 CDU.
• Reach and distribution — completed placements and verified referrals only. Audience size and follower counts earn nothing.
• Relationships and trust — completed, qualified actions. No dollar equivalent is assigned by default.
• Partnerships and permissions — confirmed commitments and completed access milestones, with evidence.

Each contribution has one primary capital category. A $100 paid preorder is recorded once as Customer and Demand Capital with a $100 capital equivalent and 1 CDU — not also as Financial Capital. A professional's hours earn either time or talent units, not both.

We flag likely duplicates using contributor, venture, capital ask, date, quantity, description, and evidence, and route them for review.

Stack completion is weighted by how important each ask is, not by CDU volume. A venture that raises plenty of money but is missing a critical property approval is not fully capitalized.

• Critical — weight 4
• High — weight 3
• Standard — weight 2
• Supplemental — weight 1

Demonstration data

Brighten Jefferson Corridor

• $3,000 in financial contributions = 30 CDUs
• 40 general volunteer hours = 20 CDUs
• 8 skilled landscape-design hours = 8 CDUs
• $1,200 in plants and materials = 12 CDUs
• 2 equipment-use days = 2 CDUs
• 3 property-owner commitments = 3 CDUs
• 2 completed qualified introductions = 2 CDUs

Total: 77 CDUs deployed. Priceable capital equivalent: $4,400. Capital stack completion: 65%.

The CDU total includes both financially measurable capital and standardized nonfinancial contributions. The Capital Equivalent includes only resources with a reasonable estimated market or replacement value.

CDUs cannot be transferred, redeemed, sold, traded, or converted into money. They create no ownership, repayment right, or entitlement to venture returns.

They are also not a social score. We do not rank people publicly by units without explicit opt-in, award units for likes or page views, or award units for contributions a venture never asked for. Ten trust CDUs are not economically equivalent to $1,000, and a venture with more CDUs does not automatically create more valuable returns.

CDUs are a useful standardized index, not a precise scientific valuation. We round displays and always show how a figure was calculated, which standard applied, whether a financial equivalent was included, and whether the result is estimated or verified.