Vault

A vault is how you take responsibility for settling one asset on UNIT. You commit UNITCOIN as collateral, register the external address where that asset settles, and the vault stands behind it.

Chapter Overview

Most of UNIT is about holding and moving your own assets. Vault is different: it is where you put capital to work backing the settlement of an asset. If the Wallet answers what do I hold?, Vault answers what am I backing, and with how much?

A vault covers one asset. There is a Bitcoin vault, an Ethereum vault, a Solana vault and so on, and you can operate one of each, so the screens are organised by asset market rather than by anything you name yourself.

The three ideas worth having first

Collateral is your commitment: UNITCOIN you commit to a vault. It is what makes the vault backed rather than merely declared, and it stays yours throughout — committed, not given away.
The Vault Asset Amount is what the vault owes: What the vault currently holds and is responsible for settling. It rises when an asset arrives at the vault's settlement address, and falls as you settle it.
Settle before you withdraw: Collateral comes back only once the vault has nothing outstanding. The Withdraw tab says so on the screen: withdraw UNITCOIN only after the vault's outstanding asset is settled.

How a vault works, end to end

Open — register a verified settlement address for the asset. The vault becomes Active.
Add — commit UNITCOIN collateral. You can add more at any time.
Operate — the vault settles its asset. Requests against it appear in Process Withdrawals.
Settle — reduce what the vault owes back to zero.
Withdraw — take your collateral back. Taking all of it ends the vault; its history is kept.

Steps 1 to 5 all happen on one page per vault, with Add, Withdraw and Settle tabs — see Open or Add to a Vault.

Screens in This Chapter

The Vault module has three tabs. My Vaults is where everything starts.
Screen	What you use it for
My Vaults	See your committed collateral and every vault market, and open or manage a vault
Open or Add to a Vault	One vault's own page — register its address, add collateral, settle, withdraw
Platform Reserves	See how every vault market on UNIT is backed
Process Withdrawals	Review and take on withdrawal requests made against vaults

Common Workflows

Understand what you are backing

Open My Vaults. Read Your Collateral for the total, then each vault's Vault Asset Amount to see whether that collateral is free.

Start backing an asset

Verify a settlement address for the asset in Digital Assets first. Then, from My Vaults, select Open Vault on that asset. The vault page opens on the Add tab and walks you through registering the address and committing collateral — see Open or Add to a Vault.

Take your collateral back

Settle the vault's outstanding asset to zero on the Settle tab, then withdraw on the Withdraw tab. Taking all of it ends the vault.

Settle someone else's withdrawal

Open Process Withdrawals, find a request for an asset you operate a vault for, and select Process.

Related Features

Digital Assets: Where settlement addresses are added and verified. A vault reads that list — it never adds to it. One address is either a vault settlement address or a withdrawal destination, never both.
Wallet: Where your UNITCOIN comes from and returns to.
Withdraw: The requester's side of the journey that Process Withdrawals settles.
Deposit: Assets arriving at a vault's settlement address raise what the vault owes.
Earn: Often confused with vault collateral. Earning is staking a token for rewards; vault collateral backs a settlement facility. Different things.