Immutable settlement protocols for real-world assets: deployed, ownerless, open templates
I have deployed a collection of independent smart contract protocols on Ethereum mainnet. Each one is finished infrastructure: Immutable, ownerless, no upgrade path. This post is a technical introduction to what they are, how they are structured, and how to build on them. The pattern Every protocol follows the same two-component structure: An ERC primitive that represents a physical or digital asset on-chain Immutable smart contracts that handle neutral, deterministic settlement That is the complete structure. No governance hooks. No admin functions. No upgradeability. Ownership renounced on all contracts at deployment. Each protocol also has a quick-start templates repository: Minimal, auditable reference implementation that shows the direct path to building on the protocol without going through any platform or intermediary. The protocols DeDe: parcel delivery settlement ERC-721 parcel primitive. Pickup, dropoff, finalize lifecycle. Automatic finalization after 72 hours. Immutable 0.5% protocol fee. Permissionless finalization with finalizer tip. Signer registry with mandatory stake and slashing. DROP: physical storage settlement ERC-721 storage session primitive. Drop, pick, finalize lifecycle. Optional escrow. Immutable 0.3% protocol fee. Storage node registration via DROPSpaceRegistry with coarse location commitment and hash commitment to off-chain terms. CUT: digital ownership and rights settlement ERC-1155 media primitive. Fractional or full ownership of any digital medium. Scene registry for content anchoring. Direct purchase from minter. KEY: vehicle ownership and sale settlement ERC-721 vehicle identity anchor. Immutable VIN and spec hash commitments. Atomic sale settlement with buyer-funded escrow. Fixed 5-day finalization and dispute windows, protocol constants, not adjustable. 0.3% protocol fee. In jurisdictions where vehicle registries expose APIs, platforms can initiate legally recognized ownership transfers triggered from the decentralized side. STAY: commodity settlement ERC-721 commodity primitive. Access rights and transfer settlement for commodity assets. ACT: physical service settlement ERC-721 service primitive. Agree, deliver, confirm, finalize lifecycle. Protocol-neutral about service type and scale. Architecture: blockchain microservices The closest analogy is microservices. Each protocol is a self-contained service with a single responsibility. It exposes a deterministic interface. It has no opinion about what surrounds it. No protocol knows the others exist. There is no shared state, no internal coupling, no common coordinator. Each one lives and fully function in complete isolation. Platforms orchestrate them at the layer above, the same way a system orchestrates independent services without modifying the services themselves. A logistics platform might combine DeDe and DROP. A vehicle marketplace might use KEY alone. A media platform might use CUT alone. None of these require any other protocol. The difference from conventional microservices is permanence. These cannot be taken down, modified, or redeployed by their operator. The behavior defined at deployment is the behavior forever. Templates Every protocol has a separate quick-start templates repository. The templates are minimal reference implementations. Not SDKs, not frameworks. They are the correct, direct way to interact with the protocol. Readable, forkable, deployable by anyone. The template path is always open. No platform can close it. Deployed contracts All contracts are verified on Etherscan. Ownership renounced. Contract addresses are in the individual protocol repositories. DeDe: deployed November 2025 DROP: deployed April 2025 CUT, KEY, STAY, ACT: deployed May 2026 Where to start The Substrate is a documentation index for all the protocols. Protocol repositories, template repositories, contract addresses, and orchestration examples are all in one place. https://github.com/pablo-chacon/substrate pablo-chacon-ai@proton.me
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