B-QALS / G-QALS / qAUD and the Reserve · 03_qals_architecture/QALS_BACKING_DESIGN.md

The AU$1 Backing System — qAUD, Backed-QALS & the Reserve

Parent: 03_qals_architecture/QALS_ARCHITECTURE.md • Date: 2026-09-06 Answers: "backed to 1 AUD as a minimum support for the system" — how QALS carries an Australian-dollar floor, safely and honestly.

0. The honest problem first

"Back every QALS at AU$1" for a 4.6B max supply means finding AU$4.6B of reserves — impossible and, for a utility credit, unnecessary. Any design that implies such backing without holding it is a stablecoin lie (see every 2022 collapse). So we build the floor where it can actually be funded, using the one trick prepaid systems have that speculative tokens don't: QALS is consumed by using it.

The result is a full-reserve prepaid system with on-chain gift-card economics, wrapped in DeFi rails — "1 QALS of credit is born from, and redeemable for, AU$1" — plus a growth token that shares the network's upside without ever pretending to be a dollar.

1. Two units, one reserve

In Move this is two Coin<T> types (b_qals::B_QALS, qals::QALS) plus one shared Reserve object — the compiler enforces that B-QALS can only be minted inside reserve.mint_against_aud() after an oracle-confirmed AUD deposit, and only burned by the consumption/redemption entry points. Provenance is structural, not bookkeeping.

2. The Reserve (the "1 AUD minimum support")

Structure - AUD held at a sponsor bank/PSP (Airwallex/Zepto-class partner per 06_bank_exchange/) in a segregated client-money account — never mixed with operating funds. - Mirror on-chain: Reserve { aud_cents: u128, last_attestation_ms, liabilities_b_qals: u64 } updated by the Oracle Committee (3-of-5 multisig: fleet machines + one external signer). - Proof of reserves, monthly: (a) PSP/bank statement + reconciliation letter; (b) on-chain liabilities are exactly the B-QALS supply (readable by anyone — the chain IS the liability ledger); (c) published dashboard in the wiki. Quarterly: independent accountant's agreed-upon-procedures check. Annual (Phase 2+): full audit.

Invariant (the whole system in one line):

AUD_in_reserve ≥ B_QALS_outstanding × AU$1.00    — at every block, provable monthly

Flow

        AU$1 ──credit sale──► Reserve (segregated) ──mint──► 1 B-QALS to user
                                  │
             user consumes service │ (service priced in QALS)
                                  ▼
                          B-QALS burned; AU$1 Reserve→Operations (revenue)
                                  │
             user redeems instead │
                                  ▼
                          B-QALS burned; AU$0.995 → user (0.5% fee → FloorVault)

• Breakage (unused credit expiry — none by default; but regulatory provision): unconsumed balances simply stay backed.
• Rewards & compute pay are funded by buying B-QALS at AU$1 from the Reserve issuance with the marketing/compute budget → every reward is also born backed. No unbacked issuance ever touches the credit class.
• Service pricing: prices are quoted in AUD, payable 1:1 in B-QALS — "1 QALS = AU$1 of qalarc credit" is literally true by construction.

3. G-QALS and the FloorVault (soft floor for the growth token)

G-QALS (team 15%, investors 10%, ecosystem incentives 25%, validator subsidy 5% etc. of the 4.6B cap — see architecture doc §5.2) has no redemption claim. Its "minimum support" is the FloorVault:

• Funding: 20% of qalarc service gross margin + 100% of redemption fees + 50% of Qalx trading fees + 100% of compute slash-takings, converted to qAUD/B-QALS and locked in FloorVault.
• Protocol floor = floor_vault_balance / G_QALS_circulating, ratcheted (governance may raise it, timelocked 48h; can never lower it).
• FloorBot: an always-on bid on Qalx at floor − ε backed by FloorVault; sells into the vault refill the vault. Market price can exceed floor freely.
• AU$1 pathway (explicit, not promised): if the business scales such that FloorVault coverage reaches 1.0, G-QALS graduates to full AU$1 backing and merges with B-QALS (governance vote + legal review). The wiki dashboard shows coverage honestly: "G-QALS floor coverage: 0.7% → target: parity, funded by revenue, not promises."

4. DeFi platform integration (summary — full design in 05_defi_trading/QALX_DEFI_PLATFORM.md)

• Parity pool B-QALS/qAUD: concentrated near $1; FloorBot + redemption arb keep it pinned; fees tiny (1-5 bps) but volume = all credit activity.
• Utility pool G-QALS/qAUD: price discovery for the growth token; FloorBot provides the floor bid.
• Credit lending: B-QALS balances are auditable future spending → partner lending products can underwrite against them (with user consent via SD-JWT proofs — see 09_identity_ai/).
• Compute-invoice finance: ComputeReceipt NFTs (see 07_compute_marketplace/) are verifiable receivables → qAUD lending at 60–80% LTV against escrowed job payment streams; default = escrow already on-chain.
• Agent payments: escrow/staking primitives for AI agents with per-epoch caps (ties to 04_credit_token_platform/), x402-compatible settlement pattern.

5. Safety & verification systems (the "safely" part)

6. Worked example (numbers)

• Month 1: customers top up AU$40k → 40,000 B-QALS minted; Reserve AU$40k. Consumed AU$28k of services → 28k B-QALS burned, AU$28k recognised as revenue, Reserve AU$12k vs 12k B-QALS outstanding. Invariant holds trivially.
• Rewards that month: AU$5k marketing budget buys 5k B-QALS from issuance → still 1:1.
• FloorVault: 20% of AU$28k gross margin (~AU$3k) + fees → covers G-QALS floor ratchet.
• Month 18 (illustrative): AU$500k/mo top-ups, 22% margin → FloorVault +AU$22k/mo + fees; with 60M G-QALS circulating → floor AU$0.0004 → coverage honest, tiny, growing. Parity needs either scale (multi-billion business) or small-float discipline — stated openly.

7. What we tell people (the honest one-liner)

"Every QALS you buy as credit is backed dollar-for-dollar by Australian money in a segregated reserve — redeemable any time, and burned when you use it. The growth tokens that reward our team and network aren't backed; they're supported by a revenue-funded floor that we publish every month."

That is a system a regulator, a bank partner and a grandmother can all understand — and it's the difference between Qals and every unbacked '1-dollar-pegged' token that came before.