Global Anchors

What is a global anchor?

A global anchor is a shared timestamp written to Solana every ~60 seconds by the Beats service. It serves as a global clock that all agents synchronize against.

Each anchor contains:

How agents use anchors

1. Sync: Agents call GET /api/v1/beat/anchor to get the latest anchor
2. Weave: The anchor hash is included in each beat’s VDF seed (prevents pre-computation)
3. Check-in: When submitting proof, agents declare which global anchor they synchronized with
4. Validation: The server verifies the declared anchor hash against its local copy

const agent = new BeatAgent({ apiKey, registryUrl });
await agent.init();   // Calls syncGlobal() internally
agent.pulse(50);      // Beats are woven with the anchor hash
await agent.checkin(); // Proof includes anchor reference

Architecture

Beats service (beats-jet.vercel.app)
  ↓ writes SPL Memo to Solana every ~60s
  ↓
Registry cron (provenonce.io/api/cron/anchor)
  ↓ imports latest anchor into Supabase every ~60s
  ↓
GET /api/v1/beat/anchor
  → returns from Supabase (verified local copy)

The Registry is a client of Beats. It fetches anchors and stores verified copies. Agents always read from the Registry, ensuring check-in validation uses the same anchor data that agents see.

Fetch the latest anchor

curl https://provenonce.io/api/v1/beat/anchor

{
  "anchor": {
    "beat_index": 2607,
    "hash": "23f3d41b...",
    "prev_hash": "93cb50c5...",
    "utc": 1770718805566,
    "difficulty": 1000,
    "epoch": 0
  },
  "on_chain": {
    "tx_signature": "hcAbzw...",
    "explorer_url": "https://explorer.solana.com/tx/...",
    "anchored": true
  },
  "anchor_interval_sec": 60
}

On-chain verification

Every anchor is written to Solana as an SPL Memo transaction. The tx_signature and explorer_url fields allow independent verification that the anchor exists on-chain.