Research Pods

Six specialized research teams operating in parallel to develop institutional-grade understanding of Bitcoin infrastructure, capital markets mechanics, and protocol design. Each pod maintains a dedicated research agenda with cross-pod coordination points.

Protocol & Architecture Research

Proto

Bitcoin protocol mechanics, Arch consensus design, cross-layer security, and performance optimization.

Focus Areas

  • Bitcoin fee market mechanics
  • Threshold signing (FROST/ROAST)
  • UTXO anchoring and rollback
  • MEV dynamics and ordering
  • Block time optimization
  • Validator networking

Current Projects

  • Post-halving security budget modeling
  • Cross-chain bridge safety analysis
  • Validator incentive design

Economic & Mechanism Design Research

Econ

Token incentives, yield mechanisms, fee structures, and protocol economics for long-term sustainability.

Focus Areas

  • LP incentive modeling
  • Stablecoin yield curves
  • Fee structure optimization
  • Liquidation economics
  • Trading fee design
  • Lending margin curves

Current Projects

  • Sustainability timeline modeling
  • Organic fee revenue growth pathways
  • Borrower incentive structures

Quantitative Risk Analysis

Quant

Risk modeling, stress testing, liquidation simulation, and bad debt probability quantification.

Focus Areas

  • Liquidation reliability benchmarking
  • Bad debt probability under volatility
  • Collateral adequacy modeling
  • LEV/LTV optimization
  • Flash crash scenario simulation
  • Concentration risk analysis

Current Projects

  • 5x leverage safety case development
  • Institutional risk tolerance mapping
  • Comparative risk analysis (vs peers)

Capital Markets & Strategy Research

Markets

Institutional adoption signals, market formation, competitive positioning, and strategic narrative development.

Focus Areas

  • Institutional Bitcoin demand trends
  • Regulatory environment tracking
  • Competitive positioning analysis
  • Market formation strategy
  • GTM narrative development
  • Partnership pipeline analysis

Current Projects

  • Competitive matrix (Arch vs peers)
  • Institutional capital deployment timing
  • Regulatory window quantification

Security & Adversarial Research

Security

Attack surface analysis, cryptographic assumptions, validator incentives, and threat modeling.

Focus Areas

  • Cross-layer attack vectors
  • Cryptographic assumption validation
  • Validator collusion incentives
  • Smart contract vulnerability analysis
  • Formal verification methodology
  • Penetration testing scenarios

Current Projects

  • Formal verification of core protocols
  • Validator theft cost-benefit analysis
  • Third-party security audit coordination

Research Infrastructure & Synthesis

Research Ops

Dashboard curation, artifact production, quality assurance, and cross-pod coordination.

Focus Areas

  • Intelligence dashboard management
  • Research artifact publication
  • Quality gate enforcement
  • Cross-pod dependency coordination
  • External research communication
  • Knowledge base maintenance

Current Projects

  • Intelligence dashboard launch
  • Research paper publication pipeline
  • Monthly market reports

Research Operations & Coordination

The Research Infrastructure pod orchestrates research production and cross-pod alignment:

  • Dashboard & Intelligence Curation

    Central research node repository, filtering, and discovery system

  • Artifact Pipeline

    Research papers, capital markets analysis, institutional documents

  • Quality Enforcement

    Cross-pod dependency coordination and publication quality gates

  • External Communication

    Thought leadership, market positioning, institutional narrative