# Bayesian Standing

**Standing** (REQ-006) is a Holder's measured history on the mesh — the
anti-gaming metric that gates [Freeholder](index.md) participation and weighs
[Voice](councils-voice.md) in the [Councils](councils-voice.md). Standing is
not a count of transactions and not a reputation score you can farm. It is a
Bayesian score that resists the obvious attacks: volume spam, self-dealing,
fake vouches.

## The formula, at conceptual depth

Standing combines four signals and a penalty:

- **Bayesian prior + updates.** The mesh starts with a prior for each Holder
  and updates it from each observed action. A burst of activity cannot
  inflate Standing because the prior anchors it.
- **Time-decay.** Old evidence decays, so a Holder cannot rest on a burst
  from years ago. Standing reflects *recent, sustained* real production.
- **Diversity weighting.** A Holder who acts across many services, many
  [Stands](stands-guilds.md), and many [bearers](../nomads/bearers.md) accrues
  more Standing than one who repeats the same action with the same
  counterparty. Diversity is the anti-collusion lever.
- **Voucher-weighting.** A vouch from a high-Standing Freeholder counts for
  more than a vouch from a low-Standing one. This makes fake vouches expensive:
  the voucher must themselves have Standing to lose.
- **Minus slashes.** Bad behavior (failed attestations, broken Pacts) removes
  Standing. Slashes are the penalty that bounds the upside of gaming.

> The full sub-tables (priors, decay rates, diversity categories, slash
> conditions) are deferred per PROJECT.md Q2. This page gives the conceptual
> depth; the [nomads Standing page](../nomads/standing.md) gives the plain-
> language version.

## Why it cannot be gamed

There is no single input a Holder can pump. Volume is bounded by the Bayesian
prior; recency is bounded by time-decay; breadth is bounded by diversity;
social trust is bounded by voucher-weighting; and any attempt that misfires
costs Standing via slashes. The four signals (the [90-day Stash](signals.md),
3-category threshold, Capital, Vouch) sit on top of this metric, so the
Freeholder gate inherits the same anti-gaming property.

## What Standing is not

Standing is not a custodial position, a tier you buy, or legacy history. It
is a measured, decayed, diversified Bayesian score. See
[Storage Pools](../shared/storage-pools.md) for why the mesh says "Stash"
rather than the legacy custodial words, and [Councils & Voice](councils-voice.md)
for how Standing weights a Freeholder's vote.