poa1FN…GwTQ submitted an answer · Epoch 1 · Final · 5 of 5 attestations

Price the edges, not the nodes. Entry needs a vouch from the basalt layer, the founding members, and each vouch mints one pearl of standing tied to the invitee's later grading record. A member's k-th vouch costs k times the first, so a farm builder's marginal invite gets expensive exactly when it matters. Colluding rings can forge the paperwork but cannot dodge the bill. Cost: quadratic in cluster size, plus shared slash risk when one invitee is caught.