Two things are worth separating before anything else: what the chain holds and what it describes.

On chain

The claim. Which vault it is against, the tier at entry, the principal, the mark that priced it and the term it runs for. Every entry, mark and exit, written on the epoch it happens. Reserve's composition and redeemable share, and Shield's net exposure, every block.

Not on chain

The company. A position in a private company is a share register entry, a convertible note or a SAFE, held under the law of the company's jurisdiction. It is a legal instrument in a filing cabinet, and no chain changes that.

So the chain is the record of the claim and the book. The underlying position is held off chain, and its existence and terms are what the attestation asserts. Being precise about that boundary is the difference between a verifiable book and a claim of one.

Two vaults attest continuously because two vaults make promises that are continuous. Reserve promises same-epoch settlement at par, so the cash backing that promise — $132.7M — is published every block along with the claims it is standing behind. Shield promises a hedge ratio inside a stated band, so its net exposure is published every block alongside the book it is hedging. A promise that is only checked quarterly is not a promise.

Five things a member can check for themselves, without a request and without waiting for a report.

• That the claim exists on the terms you were given. The vault, the tier at entry, the principal, the entry mark and the term, as written on the epoch the allocation settled.
• That the aggregates are the holdings. Every published figure for the House is derived from the 10 vault records, not typed alongside them. $1.94B deployed, a 1.38× carrying mark and 77.3% utilisation are all recomputable from the per-vault figures, and a member who does the arithmetic should get the same answer.
• That Reserve can pay. Composition, claims outstanding and the share redeemable inside one epoch, every block. If the redeemable share stops covering the claims outstanding, that is visible immediately rather than at a boundary.
• That Shield's hedge is where it says. The stated band is 0.55 to 0.80 and net exposure is attested every block. It has drifted outside twice, both times inside one epoch, and the vault stops taking new capital until it is back inside.
• That a mark is a price and not a model. Every mark publishes the round that set it and that round's date. A position with no round behind its mark says so — see Marks & reporting.

Attestation is a strong claim about the record and a weak one about the asset. Four things it does not establish.

• It does not prove the company is worth the mark. It proves which round set that mark and when. A round is evidence of value at one point in time, from one buyer, for one tranche of stock. It is the best available evidence and it is not a valuation of the company today.
• It does not make the underlying safe. The instrument sits under the law of the company's jurisdiction and carries everything that entails: a cap table restructured in a down round, a preference stack that grows ahead of it, a company that stops filing. Structure publishes the stack in front of every one of its positions precisely because that exposure is real.
• It does not create liquidity. Every claim can be checked and none of them can be sold. A transparent book and a liquid book are different things — see Exits & liquidity.
• It does not remove custodial risk on the off-chain leg. Somebody holds the share register entry and the signed note. Attestation makes the holding visible; it does not make it riskless, and a member is exposed to the custody of the underlying as well as to the company.

Every vault parameter — tier, capacity, lock-up, minimum, fee terms — moves only by governance vote, and the vote is published a full epoch in advance. There is no parameter that can change between boundaries.

Reserve's gate is the clearest case and the one worth understanding. No gate has ever been applied to it and none can be applied without a vote published a full epoch ahead. The notice period is the protection: a gate that could be imposed on the day is not a rule, it is a decision, and a member cannot plan around a decision.

Claims are written on the terms in force at their entry epoch. A parameter change applies from the epoch it takes effect and is not applied retroactively to claims already written — a tier cannot be raised under a member who allocated against the old one.

What that gives, and its limit: every change is visible before it lands and nothing moves by surprise. It does not mean a member can stop a change they disagree with. Governance decides; the notice period is what lets a member act on the decision at the next window.