What Is HeartBadge

HeartBadge is a protocol for membership that outlives any single event, operator, or season. It's designed so that the thing you hold — your badge — is real property, not a rental. It does seven things, and you can describe it in plain language without any cryptography vocabulary: it gives you an identity, tracks your rewards, carries verifiable proof of what you've done, shows your status in a community, opens a communication surface controlled by you, enables direct interaction with other members, and keeps itself sustainable across time without depending on any one company.

The seven layers, one paragraph each

These are the seven layers that make up the protocol. They show up in different sections of these docs — you don't need to memorize them. You're welcome to skim.

1. Identity

Your badge is a unique, verifiable object with a 20-digit identifier. It's minted to you, not to an account we control. The identifier is checksummed (Luhn) so it's hard to mistype, and its derivation path encodes which program you joined and at what tier. See Identity Model.

2. Rewards

Your badge holds reward balances across three states: available, transferable, and restricted. Rewards flow through a two-tier ledger — fast in-the-moment accrual with on-chain settlement underneath — so sending someone rewards feels like sending a message, while still being auditable. See Understanding Balances.

3. Proof

Everything the badge does can be verified offline, including at a turnstile or farebox without an internet connection. Proofs travel with the badge (SPV + BEEF), not with a server. That's how a scan on Sunday night still resolves to a reward on Monday morning even if the venue's Wi-Fi was down. See SPV and Offline.

4. Status

HRTB is your status level on HeartBadge. It has four tiers (1×, 1.5×, 2×, 3×) that multiply how much you earn from activities. HRTB is not a token, not transferable, not speculative — it's earned through presence and participation, and it stays with your badge. See What Is HRTB.

5. Communication

Your badge has a public messagebox surface — an authenticated way for operators, other members, and your own tools to reach you without giving up your email or phone. The details live on the Horizon page today; a full surface is coming.

6. Interaction

Badges can eventually bump — connect, co-attest, send rewards, issue gifts — by touching phones or tapping the same reader. This is what turns digital membership into something that happens in the room with you. See Horizon.

7. Sustainability

HeartBadge doesn't charge recurring fees. The platform earns yield on deployed capital and distributes it back to members through HeartBeat multipliers. It's the difference between a subscription you have to keep paying and a membership that keeps rewarding you. See Rewards Economics.

What it is not

• Not a loyalty program. Loyalty programs are operator-owned and optimize for the next transaction. HeartBadge is member-owned and optimizes for the next decade.
• Not a custodial wallet. Your badge, your keys. HeartChain Labs doesn't hold funds on your behalf in the custodial sense — see Non-Custody Posture.
• Not an NFT marketplace product. Your badge isn't listed for sale, doesn't have a floor price, and isn't a speculative asset. The only way to get one is to earn or buy a membership.

Ready for the mechanics? How It Works walks through purchase → mint → participate → earn with a visual.