🔒 THE LOCKS · V4 FUND DESIGN
APE funds, time-locked onchain
Every Atomic Ape mint fee routes into buckets that are locked by the contract itself. No one — not even us — can pull funds out before the timer, and locks can only be made longer. What the fund buys is the point: real mineral programs, not promises.
The four buckets
Mining missions
7-day lock
Feeds real mining missions — the digs that produce the actual specimens. Releases to the mission escrow contract, never to a person.
Specimen program
30-day lock
Buys grading, certificates, and storage for the specimen vault. This is the fund that backs new specimen NFT certificates.
Equipment and compliance
90-day lock
Geiger counters, PPE, legal and compliance work — the boring stuff that keeps the program real and honest.
RESERVE — future use or burn
90-day lock (extendable, never shortenable)
The v4 design reserve. Long-term holding for future use — or burn. Locks can only ever be made LONGER, never shorter.
Real-asset pairing, the honest version
The original v4 concept paired NFT funds with tokenized stocks. That path is not available to US users, so we pair with the asset class we physically hold: rare-earth and pegmatite minerals, dug on our own missions, documented, and certified onchain.
- Missions → specimens: the missions bucket funds digs; finds are weighed, photographed, and catalogued into the specimen vault.
- Specimens → certificates: each certified specimen becomes an NFT certificate — a digital title with real weight and photos (see /verify).
- Certificates → holders: RIG and APE holders get claims by tier — APE holders get the UV-fluorescent (radioactive-tier) pieces.
- Future: if real-asset approvals ever open up, certificate values can graduate into formal instruments. The reserve bucket exists for exactly that future.
SpecimenReserveVault — every cert backed 1:1
A second contract, the reserve vault, registers every specimen certificate against the physical piece in treasury storage — grams, USD value, and Geiger reading, all readable onchain by anyone. When a specimen ships to a winner, its custody flag flips and the reserve total drops automatically. The vault holds no money and cannot move your NFTs — it only makes the backing auditable.
- 1:1 backing: one certificate = one physical specimen in the vault
- Live totals: aggregate grams + USD value of everything in custody, onchain
- Custody trail: shipped pieces leave the reserve count; returns restore it
- Ledger-only custody: the physical reserve and the registry keys live with the Ledger, never a hot wallet
Nothing to trust — only what it can't do
⏳ Can't release early
Releases revert until each bucket's unlock time passes. Verified in testing.
📈 Locks only lengthen
extendLock reverts if you try to make a lock shorter. Even the owner can't rush it.
🎯 Fixed destinations
Missions bucket releases only to the mission escrow. Everything else only to the treasury Ledger.
🔐 2-step ownership
Ownership moves in two transactions to the Ledger — a typo can't brick the vault.
Status: contract written, compiled, and rehearsed 16/16 locally. Deployment to mainnet 4663 happens with the APE launch sequence, funded and signed by the Ledger. No funds are held by any hot wallet. This page describes mechanics — it is not an offer, yield promise, or investment product.