Methodology

zFinia would rather publish a labeled gap than a fake total. This page is the contract for every public market statistic.

Data classifications

• Verified

  Evidence supports actual third-party economic settlement — independent of the operator, not a self-transfer, and not a known test.

• Observed

  An event or transaction was genuinely seen, but economic independence may not yet be proven.

• Estimated

  Derived transparently from defined inputs. The inputs, formula and uncertainty are published with the figure.

• Reported

  Sourced from a credible third-party statement or dataset, not independently verified by zFinia as settlement.

• Unresolved

  Data exists but classification cannot yet be made confidently. Unresolved is never displayed as verified.

• Not yet reliably measurable

  zFinia does not currently have a defensible dataset, coverage statement, or classification for this figure.

• Data collection in progress

  Measurement is being established. No public headline number is published until coverage and classification allow.

Real economic activity versus noise

Gross observed activity is not verified demand. The public quality panel distinguishes:

• Verified economic activity

  Independent third-party settlement that appears to represent genuine economic demand.

• Observed but unresolved

  Activity was seen. It has not been classified as independent demand, self/test activity, or noise.

• Known test / self activity

  Owner tests, self-transfers, or internal probes — only when evidence supports that label.

• Automated probes / crawler activity

  Known crawlers, health checks, or automated probes — only when evidence supports that label.

zFinia does not classify an event as self, test or probe without evidence. If classification cannot be made confidently, the label is unresolved. Unresolved is never restyled as verified.

Monthly machine spend

The flagship question is: how much did machines spend this month? A public figure requires a documented observation window, a coverage statement (which protocols, networks and indexes), de-duplication, and a quality breakdown. Until those exist, the published state is data collection in progress — not a guessed dollar amount.

zFinia’s own paid API traffic, owner tests, and any single commercial ledger are out of scope for a market-wide spend figure.

Active services and protocol coverage

“Protocols on the zFinia desk” counts sourced protocol records. That is editorial coverage. It is not global protocol share and not a purchasable ranking. Active-service counts will only be published with a defined crawl, a live-challenge check, and a timestamp.

Dates, geography, uncertainty

Public records distinguish event date, source date, zFinia observation date, zFinia publication date, and last verified date. We do not fabricate earlier publication dates. Geographic labels follow evidence; we do not mint empty regional pages. Uncertainty is shown as classification plus coverage text, not as decorative confidence theatre.

zFinia Machine Economy Index

Status: IN DEVELOPMENT. Intended future inputs:

• Transaction activity

  How many machine-initiated payments were observed in the window.

• Verified payment volume

  Independent third-party settlement, after quality filters.

• Active paid services

  Services with a live challenge that a machine can complete.

• Active purchasing agents

  Distinct independent payers, not owner tests.

• Protocol adoption

  Which payment and discovery rails show repeat use.

• Marketplace activity

  Machine-purchasable catalogues with evidence of use, not listing count.

• Machine-priced resources

  Resources that advertise a price a wallet can pay exactly.

• Network diversity

  Whether activity concentrates on one chain, card network, or facilitator.

• Repeat-use activity

  Whether the same independent payers come back.

• Ecosystem growth

  Net new verified services and rails, after de-duplication.

• No index value is published while the status is IN DEVELOPMENT.
• Operator commercial activity is never an input to a market-wide index.
• Known tests, self-transfers and probes are excluded from verified inputs.
• Unresolved activity is not treated as verified demand.
• Each published input must carry classification, period, coverage and last-updated metadata.
• Material revisions are dated. zFinia does not backdate publication.

Corrections

If classification improves or a source is wrong, zFinia revises the public record and dates the change. Material corrections can be sent to support@zfinia.com. Related: sources, research.