About Vouchward

Vouchward is a search instrument. A poster commits a capped finder's fee for something specific; invitation links carry the search outward through real people; and when it resolves, Vouchward issues a signed settlement register the poster pays against directly.

We hold no money, ever. We are not an escrow, a marketplace, or an employment agency. We record commitments, forwards, claims, and acceptances, sign them, and publish the means to check our record — the platform key at /.well-known/rb-platform-key, a verifier, and per-search bundles anyone can replay.

The reward mechanism — a finder's reward plus a pool that halves along the chain of forwards that led to the find — comes from the MIT team's winning entry in DARPA's 2009 Red Balloon Challenge. It pays for something markets normally can't buy: the judgment "not me, but I know exactly who to ask."

Searches for a specific person (hiring, reconnecting, anything with a human at the center) carry an extra rule: the person must agree before a claim about them is even reviewed. Those searches currently run with our help rather than self-serve — the terms say why.

Vouchward is young. One search has been run end to end so far — a $1 proof whose complete record is public, replayable, and honest about that. The instrument grows by closed, paid, checkable searches, not by promises.