> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.presschain.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What Is a Capsule?

> The structured form of your journalism on PressChain - not just an article, but a permanent governance object.

## The Simplest Answer

A **Capsule** is your article, plus:

* Your identity at the moment you published
* The specific claims your article makes
* The evidence backing those claims
* Everyone who contributed (authors, editors, researchers)
* The full history of votes, disputes, corrections, and integrity findings

It lives permanently on PressChain. It can never be deleted. It can be corrected - but the original always stays visible.

***

## Why Not Just an Article?

Consider what's missing when journalism is just a webpage:

| Normal Article           | PressChain Capsule                                      |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| Can be silently edited   | Every change creates a revision - originals stay        |
| Can be deleted           | Permanent - no deletion                                 |
| Evidence is "trust us"   | Evidence is hash-committed at publication               |
| Disputed through PR      | Disputed through on-chain court, claim by claim         |
| Corrections are informal | Corrections are governance objects with their own votes |
| Rights unclear           | Rights licensing built in, revenue auto-split           |
| Identity informal        | Author identity cryptographically tied to publication   |

A Capsule is what journalism looks like when it's treated as infrastructure - not content.

***

## What's Inside a Capsule

### Your Identity Snapshot

When you publish, PressChain records exactly who you were *at that moment*:

* Your PressKey address (your permanent journalist ID)
* Your role (Citizen / Reporter / Verified Author)
* Your outlet and whether its domain was verified
* Your reputation score
* Your bond state

This never changes. If you leave your outlet, get a new role, or change anything later - the historical record still shows who you were when you hit publish.

### Structured Claims

Claims are the specific assertions your article makes. Instead of treating your article as one big blob, PressChain structures what you're actually claiming:

| Claim Type   | When to Use                                                        |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `reporting`  | Direct facts you observed or documented                            |
| `allegation` | Something a source alleges - you're reporting it, not asserting it |
| `confirmed`  | Facts independently verified through multiple sources              |
| `analysis`   | Your interpretation - not disputed as factual claims               |
| `correction` | A correction to a previously published claim                       |
| `opinion`    | Clearly labeled opinion content                                    |

**Why claims matter:** If someone disputes your story, they dispute *specific claims* - not the whole article. A politician challenging your vote count can't use that challenge to invalidate your reporting on campaign finances.

### Evidence

Each piece of evidence you attach gets:

1. Uploaded to the Vault Network (secure distributed storage)
2. Hashed with SHA-256
3. That hash stored permanently on PressChain

Later, anyone can take your evidence file, hash it, and compare to the on-chain hash. If they match - the evidence is unchanged. If they don't - tampering is provable.

Evidence types include:

* Archived page snapshots (web pages as they existed when you reported)
* Documents (filings, reports, records)
* Transcripts (interviews, meetings)
* Media files (photos, video, audio)
* Data files (spreadsheets, datasets)

### Contributors

Your full newsroom team is documented:

* Who wrote it
* Who edited it
* Who researched it
* Who fact-checked it

Each person gets a share (in basis points) of any rights licensing revenue. A typical split: Author 70%, Editor 30%.

### The Lifecycle

```
Submitted
    ↓
Voting Open (72 hours)
    ↓
Accepted ──────────────────────→ Canonical
    ↓                               ↓
Rejected              Distribution Active
    ↓                               ↓
Not Canonical            Rights Licensing On
                                    ↓
                         Possible Dispute
                                    ↓
                         Court Process
                                    ↓
                         Integrity Label Applied
```

***

## What "Canonical" Means

Canonical means your Capsule passed public acceptance - 60% weighted approval and 5% quorum of eligible voters, within 72 hours.

It means:

* Your article is permanently on the PressChain record
* It displays a "✓ Canonical on PressChain" badge
* It enters the Press Network distribution feed
* It's eligible for rights licensing
* It's eligible for the Rights Marketplace

Non-canonical articles still live on your website - they just don't have the protocol's permanent record attached.

***

## Capsule vs. Article - Side by Side

*Maya's story about city council corruption:*

**As a normal article:** Published Tuesday. City attorney calls the editor Wednesday. Story is quietly updated Thursday to soften the vote count claim. No one knows the original said "7 members voted yes" - now it says "a majority."

**As a PressChain Capsule:** The original Capsule with "7 members voted yes" is permanently on-chain with the council session archive as evidence. If a correction is needed, a new Capsule is created pointing back to the original. Both remain visible. The correction has its own vote. The history is permanent.