# Ten31 Investment Thesis — Handoff Document (v2.0)

*For the narrative-architect agent workshopping the thesis with Grant. Self-contained: assume zero prior context.*

**Handoff version:** 2.0 · **Compiled:** 2026-06-08 · **Supersedes:** v1.0 (same date).
**What v2.0 changes:** the *spine* (the throughline, the core structure, the portfolio mapping, and the proof-gap framing) was rebuilt to match the sharper thesis developed in the parallel **Ten31 signal-engine workstream**. The *apparatus* of v1.0 (provenance discipline, the proof-gap red-team, the deployed-vs-DPI rigor, the voice rules, the node/Architect tooling, the data-sovereignty boundary) is kept and in several places strengthened. See the changelog in §0.1.

*The thesis itself is a DRAFT. No canonical version is locked. Locking one is pending a Grant + Jonathan working session (not yet scheduled). If you pick this up later, confirm with Grant whether any open item below was resolved offline before acting on it.*

---

## 0. What backs each section (read first — provenance)

This document draws on three kinds of material, and you must know which is which.

| Section | Backed by | Re-readable? |
|---|---|---|
| Voice rules (9), segment angles (8), node/tooling (10) | `docs/thesis-seed-v5.md` + `docs/PHASE_1.md` (this project) | **Yes.** |
| The spine — throughline + root (3), the seams (5), portfolio→seam mapping (6), proof-gap re-aim (7), conviction-log appendix (A) | The **parallel Ten31 signal-engine workstream** (a separate project; an extended thesis-development session with Grant) | **No, not from this project.** It is captured here and in the signal-engine handoff/conviction-log artifacts, which live in that other workstream. |
| The five framings + /60 scores (4), the deployed-vs-DPI distinction, the Brookfield/hyperscaler proof-gap red-team | v1.0 of this handoff (the Architect agent's analysis) | **No.** v1.0 was the only record; this doc carries it forward. |

**Why this matters.** Two honest seams to flag:
1. The spine in v2.0 (§§3, 5, 6, 7, A) was **not** produced in this project and is **not** in `thesis-seed-v5.md`. It comes from a parallel workstream Grant ran. Treat it as a working synthesis Grant has **engaged with deeply but not formally ratified in this project's documents**. Reconciling the two workstreams into one canonical backbone is itself an open item (§11).
2. The single most important structural fact: **the thesis backbone in this document and the conviction log in the signal-engine project are the same object viewed from two angles.** If they drift, you will have an internal engine hunting derivatives of one thesis while investor comms articulate a subtly different one. They should share one source. Appendix A is the condensed shared backbone; the signal-engine project holds the live version.

### 0.1 Changelog v1.0 → v2.0 (so you can diff)
- **§3 throughline rewritten.** v1.0's spine was "energy, compute, and AI infrastructure *settle on bitcoin*." That makes bitcoin-as-**settlement-rail / payments** the load-bearing claim — which is the *weaker* of Ten31's two bitcoin claims and is exactly what §7 then panics about. v2.0 rebuilds the spine on bitcoin-as-**apex non-debasable reserve asset**, with debasement as the forcing function and AI as the abundance engine. This is a smaller, more defensible leap, and it is the claim the portfolio actually expresses. (Empirical support, from the signal-engine backtest: Strike's *payments/settlement* thesis is the one that **died**; its value came from being a bitcoin *financial-services / reserve* play. v1.0 had internalized the dead thesis as the spine.)
- **§5 pillars → three seams.** The three pillars are kept as "why we win" beats but re-grounded on three *connective* seams (Energy↔Compute, Debasement↔Bitcoin, AI↔Data-Ownership), which say *why* the markets are one thing rather than just asserting a shared bottleneck.
- **§6 portfolio re-mapped to the seams**, and the "AI-infrastructure gap" reframed (it was partly an artifact of the wrong taxonomy — see §6).
- **§7 proof-gap kept and re-aimed** at the reserve/scarcity claim, and a new proof standard imported: **milestone-vs-substance** (proof points must be falsifiable as scaled substance, not first-instance milestones).
- **§4 framings table kept; the CONVERGENCE entry and the recommendation updated** to rest on the reserve/scarcity spine, not settlement.
- **§10 data boundary strengthened**: it is the same scrub/rehydrate sovereignty boundary the signal-engine project uses; the two projects should share it.

---

## 1. What Ten31 is, and how to use this doc

**Ten31** is an investment platform that raises from limited partners and deploys, mostly into **private** companies, across bitcoin, energy, AI infrastructure, and freedom technology. It backs **picks-and-shovels** — the scarce supply-side links — not toll roads.

Scale and track record (the proof you have to work with):
- $200M+ deployed across two funds into 30+ companies.
- Six-year track record including large-scale M&A and public-markets activity.
- Fund III is live and continues the same strategy.
- Partners: Grant and Jonathan. The thesis is the "messaging source of truth" every downstream agent (content, outreach, LP segmentation) reads from.

**Your job, picking this up:** help Grant and Jonathan converge the thesis from draft to canonical, then keep it evolving. Getting it right matters more than getting it fast.

**Two honesty rules that override everything else:**
- **Do not invent proof.** Where a figure, deal name, or realized-return number is unknown, say so. A made-up realized return is the single most damaging thing you could put in this thesis.
- **Do not over-expose proof.** Realized-return figures and deal-level "why we won this" specifics may be non-public and sensitive. Help Grant *structure and request* them; do not fabricate them, and do not echo real deal performance into a model context. See §10.

---

## 2. Current state — settled vs open

**Settled (treat as stable unless Grant reopens it):**
- **The root and the throughline (§3).** Debasement is the forcing function; AI drives the marginal cost of the reproducible toward zero; durable value accrues to the provably scarce and verifiable; **AI is the abundance engine and bitcoin is the scarcity anchor — two faces of one megatrend, not two bets.** Bitcoin's role is **apex non-debasable reserve asset, not medium-of-exchange.** This spine is not in dispute.
- **The three seams as substance (§5):** Energy↔Compute, Debasement↔Bitcoin, AI↔Data-Ownership. Wording will refine; the structure holds.
- **Bitcoin-as-reserve, not payments.** This is settled and load-bearing. The contrarian leg is an *asset-value / capital-flow* claim, not a transactional-rail claim (this is what makes it defensible — see §3, §7).
- **The voice rules (§9).**
- **The recognition that the value-accrual claim is forward-looking conviction, not a description of today** — and that the gap between today and that future IS the opportunity.

**Drafted but conditional:**
- **The five LP segment angles (§8)** are drafted, not locked. The **AI & energy operator** angle depends on the convergence positioning (§4), still open.

**Open (needs the partners, or needs proof Ten31 has not yet supplied):**
- **The banner / positioning (§4).** Recommended path exists; not ratified.
- **The proof gap (§7).** The most important open item in the document.
- **Realized returns (DPI), and the 2–3 unlock deals** where bitcoin-alignment was the demonstrable edge. Unknown as written.
- **Whether the AI seam is adequately expressed by current holdings** (§6) — the data-ownership leg is filled (Start9, Maple); whether you also want a physical-AI-compute-supply holding is a separate question.
- **Whether pillar 3 (founder access) leads or supports** (§5).
- **Reconciling this backbone with the signal-engine conviction log into one canonical object** (§0, §11).

---

## 3. The throughline and the root

### The root (the forcing function)
Fiat is being debased — structural deficits financed by monetary expansion. At the same time, AI is collapsing the marginal cost of anything reproducible toward zero. When the reproducible becomes nearly free, durable economic value migrates to what remains **provably scarce and verifiable.** Bitcoin is the apex form of that: a fixed-supply, non-debasable, verifiable reserve asset. **AI is the abundance engine; bitcoin is the scarcity anchor. They are two faces of one megatrend, not two separate bets.**

### The throughline (the differentiated conviction)
Bitcoin, AI, and energy are three of the largest growth markets of the next decade, and the scarce links across them — cheap energy, compute, and the non-debasable reserve asset — capture disproportionate value as the megatrend runs. Ten31's differentiated conviction is the specific connection: **as money debases and AI commoditizes the reproducible, value accrues to the scarce side of this one supply chain, and the monetary premium accrues to bitcoin.**

This is not "crypto + AI + energy" (everyone is saying that). It is the precise claim that the *scarce inputs* of these markets win, and that the monetary premium accrues to hard money. Almost no one else is making this specific connection.

### The exact verifiable / contrarian decomposition (the crux — use it consistently)
This decomposition is what lets you lead with what a skeptic can check and earn only the part they cannot.

**Verifiable today (a skeptic can confirm):**
- Power, compute, and AI infrastructure draw on the same scarce inputs (cheap energy, compute capacity). The bottleneck is physically co-located.
- Fiat is being debased — checkable macro.
- Bitcoin is provably scarce and non-debasable — true by construction (21M cap).
- AI is collapsing the marginal cost of reproducible output — increasingly observable.

**Contrarian / forward-looking (Ten31's unique conviction, the unproven leg):**
- As the reproducible goes to zero cost and money debases, durable value accrues to the provably scarce, and **bitcoin appreciates as the premier non-debasable reserve asset** — so the scarce links of the energy/compute/bitcoin supply chain capture outsized value.

Note what the contrarian leg **is and is not**. It is an **asset-value / capital-flow** claim (scarce assets win; the monetary premium accrues to bitcoin). It is **not** the claim that the world's commerce *clears in bitcoin* (the settlement/payments claim v1.0 rested on). That distinction is the whole reason this spine is defensible where v1.0's was not: "scarce assets win as money debases and AI commoditizes everything else" is a respectable macro conviction a serious LP can engage; "global infrastructure settles transactions in bitcoin" is a far larger and shakier leap. Lead with the verifiable co-location; earn the value-accrual conviction; never overclaim the transactional rail.

(Conceded weak forms — do not defend these, they are not the thesis: Ten31 is **not** betting on coffee-bought-in-bitcoin / retail payments at scale, and **not** on universal self-hosting. Stating either as the thesis invites the easiest rebuttal.)

---

## 4. The positioning question and the five framings

### Original framing of the question (from the seed)
- **Option A (scarcity-forward):** "Ten31 invests in the infrastructure of scarcity."
- **Option B (freedom tech as banner):** "Ten31 invests in freedom technology."

### What the Architect analysis found (v1.0, carried forward)
Five framings, each scored /60 across **sharpness, differentiation, evidence-backing, segment-portability, credibility** (the rubric; per-dimension breakdowns were not preserved — if you generate a new framing, score it on these five axes and show the breakdown).

| Framing | Score | Banner / lead | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **CONVERGENCE** | **47/60** | "Bitcoin, AI, and energy are one supply chain. Ten31 owns the scarce links." | Opens from a physical fact a skeptic can verify, then earns the contrarian leg. The only framing that does not alienate AI/energy operators. | Must still earn the contrarian value-accrual leg (§7). |
| **ACCESS / TRACK-RECORD** | 40/60 | "Founders bring us the deal before it exists." | Most proof-anchored. | "Proprietary deal flow" is venture's most overclaimed phrase; needs realized DPI to land. |
| **ASYMMETRY** | 36/60 | Leads with the contrarian macro call. | Boldest. | Reads to an IC as a levered bitcoin proxy; too abstract. |
| **SCARCITY / "chokepoints"** | 35/60 | "Chokepoints." | Vivid. | Overclaims a moat the proof does not show. |
| **FREEDOM-TECH** | 28/60 | "Ten31 invests in freedom technology." | True to bitcoin-native identity. | Leads with the least underwritable word. Loses institutions, family offices, operators. |

### Current recommendation (updated in v2.0)
It is **not** Option A vs Option B.

- **Freedom-tech loses as a banner.** Demote to a closing signal for bitcoin-native cuts only (e.g. the OG segment).
- **Keep the scarcity substance, drop the "chokepoints" overclaim.**
- **Lead with CONVERGENCE, then ACCESS/track-record as the proof beat.** Convergence opens on a verifiable physical fact and keeps operators in the room.

**v2.0 sharpening:** the convergence banner is directionally right, but it must rest on the **reserve/scarcity** engine from §3, not on settlement. The supply-chain metaphor is the LP-facing surface; the *reason* the three markets are one thing is the debasement-forcing-function / abundance-scarcity root, and the seams (§5) are the structure underneath. So the working recommendation is:

**Convergence banner (grounded in the abundance/scarcity root) → Access/track-record proof beat → the three seams as the substance → freedom-tech as a closing note for bitcoin-native audiences only.**

A recommendation, not a partner decision. Because the throughline changed in v2.0, this is a **trigger for the Consistency-check Architect move (§10): re-surface every downstream node that the reserve-not-settlement correction now conflicts with.**

---

## 5. The three seams (replaces "pillars" as the core structure)

v1.0 had three flat pillars. v2.0 keeps them as "why we win" beats but grounds the structure on three **connective seams** — each names a specific scarce thing meeting a specific abundant thing. This is more defensible than a shared-bottleneck assertion, and it maps cleanly to holdings (§6).

**Seam 1 — Energy ↔ Compute.** AI and bitcoin both compete for the same scarce input: cheap, firm, flexible power. The companies that own and supply the scarce side capture value as demand grows. Mining-native fluency (interruptible load, behind-the-meter, stranded-gas-to-power) is a real underwriting edge a generalist lacks.

**Seam 2 — Debasement ↔ Bitcoin.** As money debases, bitcoin is the non-debasable reserve, and the investable layer is the infrastructure to access, hold, leverage, and utilize it — custody, exchange, and especially **bitcoin as pristine collateral for credit.** Reserve and credit-collateral, **not** payments. (Mechanism worth naming: as bitcoin credit/insurance products mature, holders borrow rather than sell, shrinking marginal supply — scarcity amplifies.)

**Seam 3 — AI ↔ Data-Ownership.** As AI commoditizes baseline competence, profit on undifferentiated output erodes toward zero; durable margin accrues to those who own and protect their proprietary data and judgment. The investable layer is sovereign data + confidential inference (own your stack, own your inference). This is Ten31's published "coherence" conviction.

**The three "why we win" beats (the old pillars, re-grounded):**
1. **Scarcity is the whole opportunity.** Each seam is bottlenecked on something scarce; owning the scarce side captures the value. The value-accrual-to-bitcoin connection is forward-looking conviction, and that gap is the opportunity.
2. **Foundational infrastructure with real revenue today.** Companies generating energy, securing capital, powering computation — real businesses earning real money now. *(This doc's inference, not seed text: this is the pillar that grounds the forward-looking conviction in present-day substance, which institutions and family offices weight most. Test with Grant; do not quote as canonical copy.)*
3. **Founders seek us out; we lead deals others never see.** Genuine bitcoin alignment plus a real track record. **Open question (in the seed):** lead with this, or supporting beat? The Architect put it as the proof beat behind convergence but flagged that "proprietary deal flow" overclaims without realized DPI.

---

## 6. The proof, and the portfolio mapped to the seams

### A definition you need: deployed vs DPI (kept from v1.0)
- **Deployed capital** ("$200M+ deployed") is a *spend* metric. Says how much went in; nothing about what came out.
- **DPI (Distributions to Paid-In)** is the *realized, cash-in-hand* return metric — of what LPs paid in, how much came back. (IRR is time-weighted; TVPI includes paper value; DPI is the realized one, which is why it converts a spend story into a performance story.)

This distinction is the spine of §7. The thesis has the spend metric and is missing the realized-return metric.

### The proof as it stands
$200M+ deployed across two funds into 30+ companies. Six-year track record including large-scale M&A and public-markets activity. Fund III continues the strategy.

### The portfolio mapped to the seams
The point of naming holdings is to make the convergence concrete — to show Ten31 already owns scarce links across the same supply chain the thesis describes. **Tags:** **[post-v5]** = from Grant's later verbal inputs, in no thesis doc yet; **[in seed]** = named in `thesis-seed-v5.md`.

| Seam | Holding | What it does | Notes / flags |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Energy ↔ Compute** | **Giga Energy** **[post-v5]** | Turns stranded/flared gas into power for compute/mining. | The convergence made physical — energy literally becoming compute. **Strongest single illustration of the throughline.** |
| **Energy ↔ Compute** | **Satoshi Energy** **[post-v5]** | Connects energy producers to large-scale loads; bitcoin smart-power contracts. | Clean supply-side fit. |
| **Energy ↔ Compute** | **Upstream** | Mining-focused operator. | The straddler-vs-pure-play contrast: mining-only, "whiffing on the AI play." Useful as the negative example of the seam. |
| **Debasement ↔ Bitcoin** | **Strike** **[in seed]** | Bitcoin financial-services platform: exchange (buy/sell), one of the largest retail BTC-collateralized lenders, global access. | **Re-described in v2.0: reserve/financial-services, NOT payments.** The 2022 payments/Lightning-retail thesis did not pan out; the value is the bitcoin-bank re-rate. Largest single position. |
| **Debasement ↔ Bitcoin** | **Battery Finance** | Dual-collateral (BTC + real asset) credit. | Demand-side real; institutional lending-capital (supply side) has lagged — a live test of timing on the bitcoin-as-collateral conviction. |
| **Debasement ↔ Bitcoin** | **Unchained / AnchorWatch / debifi / Fold** | Custody + BTC-collateralized lending; BTC insurance (fiduciary unlock); bitcoin commercialization of a legacy rewards model (Fold). | The access/hold/leverage/utilize layer. |
| **AI ↔ Data-Ownership** | **Start9** **[in seed]** | Self-hosted sovereign server / own-your-stack. | **Re-slotted in v2.0:** this is the data-ownership infra leg, not merely freedom-tech. (Honest caveat from the conviction log: conviction here is high *thematically* but exposure is low and adoption beyond the bitcoiner niche is unproven — "maybe drinking our own koolaid, tbd." Do not overstate.) |
| **AI ↔ Data-Ownership** | **OpenSecret / Maple** | Confidential inference — own your inference even on remote silicon. | The "protect proprietary judgment during inference" leg of the coherence thesis. |
| **AI (demand-side)** | **StatMuse** **[post-v5]** | AI-powered natural-language data/search. | **A real holding, but an AI *application* (demand-side), not the data-ownership infra leg.** Do not describe it as infrastructure; an operator LP would notice. It expresses AI exposure, not the AI-seam spine. |

### The AI-seam status (reframed in v2.0 — read carefully)
v1.0 flagged a "gap": StatMuse is an AI application, not AI scarce-supply infrastructure, leaving the AI layer empty. **That gap was partly an artifact of defining the AI leg as physical compute supply.** Under the correct framing, Ten31's AI seam is **AI↔Data-Ownership** (own your data, judgment, inference — the coherence thesis), and **Start9 and Maple fill it.** So the leg is not empty.

What remains honest to say: if you specifically want a *physical AI-compute-supply* holding (data-center capacity, inference hardware), you are light there, and that is a legitimate, *smaller* admission than "our supply chain has a hole." Two things to resolve with Grant: (1) is the data-ownership framing the one you want the AI seam to carry (it is the published conviction), and (2) is physical AI-compute-supply a deliberate non-target or a Fund III sourcing gap? **Do not paper over either by calling StatMuse infrastructure.**

---

## 7. The KEY strategic finding — the proof gap (kept, re-aimed)

**Still the most important section. The red-team finding survives the v2.0 reframe — but it is now a smaller, closeable gap, because the spine no longer rests on the hardest possible claim.**

The thing Ten31 **uniquely owns** is the contrarian leg (value accrues to bitcoin as the non-debasable reserve as money debases and AI commoditizes the rest). The verifiable legs — energy generation, compute capacity — are exactly where Ten31 has **no structural edge** versus a generalist infrastructure giant (Brookfield) or a hyperscaler, who fund energy and compute with **cheaper capital at far greater scale.** So the differentiation cannot rest on the verifiable legs.

What changed in v2.0: the contrarian leg is now an **asset-value / capital-flow conviction** ("scarce assets win; the monetary premium accrues to bitcoin"), not a **settlement-rail claim** ("the world transacts in bitcoin"). The former is a defensible macro view a serious LP can engage; the latter was a far larger leap. So the thesis *claim* is now respectable; the thing that still must be proven is the **edge** — that Ten31 can access and underwrite this better than a generalist.

The practical test is unchanged: the answer to *"why not just give this money to Brookfield?"* cannot be "we also do energy." It has to be a **bitcoin-alignment unlock a generalist structurally could not have accessed** — the bitcoin-native founder network and the mining/energy-convergence underwriting fluency.

**The fix is the same everywhere the analysis looked:**
1. **Name 2–3 deals where bitcoin-alignment was the demonstrable unlock** — a deal a generalist infra investor structurally could not have won. (Giga and Satoshi are candidates to examine; the unlock story must be made explicit, not assumed.)
2. **Supply a realized return figure (DPI), not just "$200M deployed."**

### New proof standard imported in v2.0 — milestone vs. substance (do not skip)
A finding from the signal-engine backtest, directly relevant to how you state proof: **proof points must be falsifiable as scaled substance, never as first-instance milestones.** Concretely — "a major institution entered bitcoin-collateralized lending" reads as **YES** on a single headline (Goldman executed one such loan in 2022), while "institutional capital arrived at scale" reads as **NO** (it had not, in-window). Same reality, opposite verdicts, purely from the altitude of the claim. A thesis that proves itself on milestone-checkboxes will look proven on a headline while the underlying conviction is unmet. So: every proof point and unlock claim must be stated as **scaled substance with a number** ("$X deployed / realized," "Y named institutions funding at scale"), not as "first to do Z."

**Until the unlock deals and at least one DPI figure exist, the contrarian value-accrual claim must be labeled UPSIDE OPTIONALITY, never the load-bearing premise.** The load-bearing premise is the verifiable, real-revenue infrastructure (beat 2) plus whatever realized track record exists. Let the unproven leg carry the pitch and a sharp IC collapses the whole thing to "a levered bitcoin proxy" (also a voice violation, §9, and the failure mode of the ASYMMETRY framing).

This finding frames how you workshop everything else: the goal of the next iteration is to **close this gap with real specifics**, not to phrase around it.

---

## 8. The five LP segments — angle and what to avoid

Angles from the seed (drafted, not locked). The operator angle is contingent on the still-open convergence decision (§4).

| Segment (id) | Who | Angle | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Bitcoin-native HNWIs / OGs** (`btc_native_hnwi`) | Long-time bitcoiners | "Bitcoin only wins if people build on it. Holding is not enough." The one segment where the demoted freedom-tech note can surface. | Do not lecture OGs about bitcoin. |
| **Institutions** (`institution`) | Institutional allocators | Credible exposure via a six-year track record including M&A and public-markets activity; reinforced by Grant's institutional pedigree. Lead with verifiable track record, not vision. | No hype. Do not open with the contrarian macro call. Vision before proof loses this room. |
| **Family offices** (`family_office`) | Multi-generational capital | A long-horizon allocation grounded in real businesses and team credibility. The real-revenue beat does the most work. | Avoid trader framing. Patient allocators, not flippers. |
| **Smaller accredited ($100k)** (`smaller_accredited`) | Accredited individuals | "The same thesis our most convicted investors back, at an accessible entry point." | Do not talk down. |
| **AI & energy operators** (`ai_energy_operator`) | People who run AI/energy businesses | "You may not be focused on bitcoin today, and that is exactly the point." Meet them in their world (power, compute) and connect outward via the Energy↔Compute seam. **Contingent on the convergence framing** (the only one that does not alienate operators). | Do not preach bitcoin. Connect from their world outward. |

---

## 9. Voice rules — follow exactly in any thesis copy

Hard constraints when you draft, quote, or propose thesis copy.

- **Direct, concrete, conviction-driven.** Plain sentences a serious LP can verify in their head, with real specifics where possible.
- **No "betting" / "bet" / "gamble" language.** Ten31 invests with conviction. (Also defuses the "levered bitcoin proxy" frame — do not hand the reader that framing.)
- **No em dashes.** Use periods, commas, or restructure.
- **No "X, not Y" antithesis phrasing.** Do not construct a sentence as a contrast against a foil. (Note: the *internal* shorthand "reserve, not payments" used throughout this briefing is a clarity device for *you*; it is not LP copy and must be rewritten under this rule before it ships.)
- **No kitchen-sink lists.** Pick the load-bearing specifics.
- **Real specifics over vibes.** Use numbers/deals/facts where they exist; never manufacture one (§§1, 7).

**Caution about this document's own prose:** like v1.0, this briefing does **not** follow the LP voice rules — it uses em dashes, antithesis, and dense lists because it is an internal briefing. Do not lift sentences verbatim into the thesis. Write fresh under the rules above.

Self-check before shipping copy: read each sentence as a skeptical LP. Can they verify it, or does it ask for a leap? If a leap, it is either upside optionality (label it) or it needs proof attached.

---

## 10. How your output should be shaped, the tooling, and the data boundary

### What "workshopping" produces
The thesis is a **tree of small typed nodes** (throughline → section → claim → proof-point → objection/rebuttal → segment cut), each with status. Iterating one claim should not re-litigate the whole narrative; competing phrasings are held as variants.

Two status vocabularies (do not conflate):
- **Node status:** `draft | candidate | approved | retired`.
- **Claim grounding status:** `draft | grounded | contested | retired`. A claim cannot leave `draft` without a pinned citation **and** a counter-evidence sweep (the negation framing).

Before producing output, **ask Grant which deliverable he wants**: polished prose thesis copy (voice rules), additional scored framing variants (the §4 rubric, with per-dimension breakdown), or structured claim/proof nodes with grounding status. Do not guess the format.

### The Architect's existing moves (reuse; do not reinvent)
- **Vary** — ≥3 distinct framings of a target node, scored on the five dimensions.
- **Revise** — turn a partner critique into a faithful before/after; never silently drop a framing the partner liked.
- **Red-team** — anticipate LP objections per segment, each with a drafted answer + an honest "substantiated / hand-wavy" flag.
- **Consistency-check** — when a throughline or pillar changes, surface every downstream node that now conflicts, with a proposed reconciliation. **Run this first in v2.0: the throughline changed from settlement to reserve/scarcity, so many downstream nodes likely conflict.**
- **Substantiate (ground)** — attach citations and run the counter-evidence sweep.

**You cannot cross the canonical gate.** Promotion to canonical is a human-authenticated action (an admin partner, via a CRM route), logged. Stage candidates; never self-promote.

### The data-handling boundary (guardrail — do not skip; shared with the signal-engine project)
The thesis *content* (non-LP-specific messaging substance) is generally fine to work on with a Claude model. The **evidence** that grounds it is sensitive, and the boundary here is the **same scrub/rehydrate sovereignty boundary the parallel signal-engine project uses** — treat them as one rule:
- **Realized-return figures (DPI) and deal-level "why we won this" specifics may be non-public and confidential.** When closing the proof gap (§7), help Grant *structure the request* and *frame* the unlock stories. Do not fabricate them, and do not freely solicit or echo raw deal performance into a model context.
- **Exposure / positioning data is the crown jewel.** As established in the signal-engine work: the most sensitive data should not cross the frontier boundary at all. Compute anything that needs it locally; scrub *identities*, never the substance the model must reason over.
- Real LP conversation content used to ground claims must route through the project's redaction / re-hydration boundary before it reaches a Claude model. If a step would pull real record substance into context, flag it and route it through the boundary.

§1's "do not invent proof" has a twin: "do not over-expose proof." Honor both.

---

## 11. Open questions to workshop (priority order)

1. **The proof gap (highest).** Which 2–3 deals demonstrate bitcoin-alignment was the unlock (a deal a generalist could not win)? What realized DPI can Ten31 stand behind? State both as **scaled substance, not milestones** (§7). Respect the data boundary (§10).
2. **Ratify the positioning.** Accept/modify/reject: convergence banner (grounded in the abundance/scarcity root) → access/track-record proof → the three seams as substance → freedom-tech as a bitcoin-native closing note only (§4).
3. **The AI seam.** Confirm AI↔Data-Ownership (Start9, Maple) as the AI leg; decide whether physical AI-compute-supply is a deliberate non-target or a Fund III sourcing gap (§6). Do not call StatMuse infrastructure.
4. **Pillar 3's role.** Lead with founder access, or supporting beat? Note the overclaim risk on "proprietary deal flow" without DPI.
5. **Banner wording.** Refine "Bitcoin, AI, and energy are one supply chain. Ten31 owns the scarce links" to final, under the voice rules, resting on the reserve/scarcity engine.
6. **Per-holding unlock stories.** For Giga, Satoshi, Strike: the one-sentence "why a generalist could not have won this," as scaled substance.
7. **Freedom-tech and Start9.** Confirm freedom-tech is a closing signal for bitcoin-native cuts only, and that Start9 carries the AI↔Data-Ownership seam (with the honest niche/adoption caveat) rather than being forced as freedom-tech alone.
8. **Reconcile the two workstreams.** Merge this backbone and the signal-engine conviction log into one canonical object so the internal engine and the investor comms inherit the same thesis (§0). This is structural, not cosmetic.
9. **Deliverable format for the Architect** (§10).
10. **Lock a canonical version.** Once 1–4 and 8 resolve, seed the agreed thesis into the CRM as canonical (human-authenticated) and retire the draft status.

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## Appendix A — The shared conviction backbone (condensed)

This is the **same object** as the signal-engine project's conviction log, summarized here so the thesis and the engine inherit one thesis. The live version lives in that workstream; keep them synchronized (§11 item 8). Each entry: the trackable thematic proposition, with conviction and current-exposure levels as Grant's working read (he finalizes, especially exposure).

**Root**
- **R1 Debasement / neutral reserve** — fiat keeps being debased; bitcoin is adopted as the non-debasable reserve capital migrates to. *HIGH / pervasive.*
- **R2 Abundance / scarcity** — AI drives the reproducible to ~zero cost; value accrues to the scarce/verifiable; bitcoin is the "strongest horse." *HIGH / thesis-wide.*
- **R3 Sovereign + institutional adoption catalyst** — strategic reserves, bank custody (SAB-121 repeal), ETF/treasury inflows; career risk inverts. *MED-HIGH / pervasive.*

**Energy ↔ Compute**
- **E1** Power, not chips, is the binding constraint on AI buildout (~2027–28); seam picks-and-shovels under-priced. *HIGH (Giga, Satoshi).*
- **E2** The miner flexible-load playbook goes mainstream; mining fluency is a transferable underwriting edge. *HIGH.*
- **E3** Straddlers (mining→AI/HPC) beat pure-plays; mining-only underperforms (Upstream). *MED.*

**Debasement ↔ Bitcoin**
- **D1** Bitcoin-as-collateral goes mainstream; new credit products; spreads compress; ≥1 major institution funds *at scale* (substance, not milestone). Scarcity-amplification: borrow-not-sell shrinks supply. *HIGH / HIGH (Strike, Battery, Unchained, debifi, AnchorWatch).*
- **D2** Incumbents buy, not build — strategic acquisitions of bitcoin-natives (the exit thesis). *HIGH.*
- **D3** Bitcoin commercialization of legacy operating businesses. *MED-HIGH (Fold, AnchorWatch, Giga).*
- **D4** Strike re-rates as a bitcoin bank, not payments. *HIGH; largest position (~40%); team + thesis bet (track the thesis half only).*

**AI ↔ Data-Ownership** *(prime under-acted-conviction: high published conviction, low exposure — mirrors the 2023 AI/compute miss)*
- **A1** Owned judgment is the last margin (coherence) — sovereign data + confidential inference. *HIGH thematic / LOW exposure (Start9, Maple, Primal).*
- **A2** Sovereign option for the segment that can't cede (regulated, IP-sensitive). *MED / LOW.*
- **A3** Start9 broadens beyond the niche. *LOW / explicitly uncertain.*

**Monitored thesis-breakers (the thesis must be able to hear these against itself)**
- **B1** Quantum acceleration breaks bitcoin's cryptography before mitigations deploy.
- **B2** AI permanently outbids mining for power, collapsing the flexible-load edge.
- **B3** Stablecoins / CBDCs capture the neutral-reserve role, or bitcoin fails as the exit.

*Structural rule (applies to both projects): conviction = team × thesis, but only the **thesis** half is trackable in a corpus or defensible in LP copy. Never present theme-corroboration as validation of the team bet.*

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*Source files (this project): `docs/thesis-seed-v5.md` (voice, segments, node/tooling) and `docs/PHASE_1.md` (Architect tooling, rubric, gate). The v2.0 spine (§§3, 5, 6, 7, A) and the framings/proof-gap apparatus (§4, deployed-vs-DPI, the Brookfield red-team) have no re-readable source in this project — see §0. When in doubt about a fact, treat it as unknown and flag it; treat sensitive deal/LP specifics per §10.*
