Protocol implies compatibility of the event contract and publishing data. The protocol and event contract are inseparable, which is why protocol is always included in the modelling of the event contract. Protocol is the backbone for making the whole event-organising process legible to other apps, including for the purposes of aggregating and indexing heterogenous value across the network.

In the model, the protocol allocation goes directly to protocol treasury rather than to the organising team, unlike infrastructure and facilitation. It is currently modelled as a static 5% of the event budget.

Protocol can also be used independently of facilitation and infrastructure. In that case, it does not consume organisational capacity: the model treats protocol-as-a-service as unconstrained by event scale.