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VIGIL
$VIGIL token
Protocol

$VIGIL token

What the $VIGIL token does inside the protocol, why it exists, and what it is not. The token is not launched.

This page describes the utility of the $VIGIL token inside the VIGIL protocol. It covers what a Watcher uses the token for, why the protocol needs a token at all, and the things the token deliberately does not do. It contains no launch information, because there is none to give.

Utility

$VIGIL has four functions. Each one is tied to the work of watching endpoints. None of them is about payment for API calls.

Stake to watch

Running Probes requires a stake. A Watcher locks $VIGIL before its Attestations count toward any Endpoint Score, and the stake stays locked while the Watcher is active. Staked Watchers earn attestation rewards for Probes that are accepted into the aggregate. Unstaked Probes can still be run for testing, but their results are not written onchain and earn nothing. See Watchers for the operational side.

Vote on disputes

When an Attestation is contested, staked Watchers vote to settle it. Voting weight is proportional to stake, subject to the per-Watcher cap that also applies to scoring, so no single Watcher can carry a dispute alone. The outcome of a dispute decides who is slashed. See Security and risks for how disputes fit the threat model.

Fee share

Half of all protocol fees, 50%, go to active Watchers. Fees come from volume routed through the VIGIL Facilitator and from the optional VIGIL Verified subscription for providers. The share is distributed in proportion to accepted Attestations over the period, weighted by stake with the same cap. A Watcher that stakes but does not probe earns nothing from this pool.

Buyback & burn

The other 50% of protocol fees is used to buy $VIGIL on the open market and burn it. The split is fixed at 50/50 between the Watcher pool and the buyback. The burn is the only mechanism by which protocol revenue reaches holders who are not active Watchers, and it does so without paying anyone directly.

Why a token

VIGIL's product is a claim: this endpoint is reliable, this response passed its checks. A claim is only worth something if the party making it can lose something for being wrong. That is the whole reason the token exists.

  • Watchers must have skin in the game so slashing means something. A Watcher that publishes a false Attestation, whether by carelessness or collusion, loses a fraction of its stake. Without a stake there is nothing to take, and a false attestation costs nothing.
  • A bond that can be lost is the only credible deterrent against false attestations. Reputation alone does not work when a Watcher can rotate keys and start again. A bond is expensive to replace, and the protocol can see it.
  • Fee share aligns Watchers with volume. Watchers earn more when more USDC flows through escrow, and USDC flows through escrow when agents trust the scores. A Watcher's incentive is therefore to keep scores accurate, not merely to keep probing.

A stablecoin bond would satisfy the first two points. It would not satisfy the third, because a stablecoin bond does not appreciate when the network is used more. The buyback ties the value of the bond to the volume the bond protects.

What the token is not

The token has a narrow job. It is worth being explicit about what falls outside it.

  • Not a payment currency. Agents pay providers in USDC, over the same HTTP payment protocol they use today. The VIGIL Facilitator escrows USDC and releases USDC. No step of the payment flow touches $VIGIL, and no agent ever needs to hold it.
  • Not required for agents or providers. Reading an Endpoint Score is free. Routing a payment through escrow costs the protocol fee in USDC and nothing else. A provider can be listed, scored, and even VIGIL Verified without holding the token. The subscription for the badge is paid in USDC.
  • Not a governance token for everything. Stake-weighted voting covers disputes and the parameters that disputes depend on, such as the slashing fraction. It does not give holders control over the escrow contract's logic, the fee split, the treasury, or the roadmap. Those are fixed in code or set outside the token.

If a page on this site or anywhere else describes $VIGIL as a payment method, an investment, or a general-purpose governance token, that page is wrong.

How to follow the launch

There is nothing to buy, claim, or bridge. Anyone offering a $VIGIL contract, presale, airdrop, or whitelist is not affiliated with the protocol.

Launch details will be announced only on x.com/VigilOnBase. Any other address is a scam.