--- title: every account has two lists canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/every-account-has-two-lists markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/every-account-has-two-lists.md subtitle: "what it depends on, and what depends on it. relation first, value along it both ways, and money as the part an account can carry" category: philosophy --- # every account has two lists *what it depends on, and what depends on it. relation first, value along it both ways, and money as the part an account can carry* A **dependency graph** is a map of what relies on what: things as nodes, needs as arrows. Software build tools walk one to decide what must exist before what, and a cycle breaks the build. In a landscape the arrows run both ways, and the cycles are the point: the forest needs the water its own soil holds. A build treats a loop as an error. A watershed has no root: every node needs something and is needed by something. The headwater forest, the beaver meadow beside it, the aquifer, the trout, and the town that drinks from all of them already depend on each other, in both directions, whether or not anyone opens an account. Water, shade, cold, and care already move along those relations both ways, and almost none of it is priced. What **ensurance** adds is an account each of them can have, so the part of that value money can carry has somewhere to go. The account is not the forest, and the graph is not a market until people act on it. ## the trap: a graph read in one direction Most tools read dependence one way, and each way leaves half the graph blank. A conservation group can usually say what its preserve supports: the creek below it, the elk that winter on it. What the preserve depends on often sits in a different document. A company that has run a dependency assessment can say what it depends on, often at the grain of its sector: water, a workable climate, pollination. Few ask what depends on it, beyond customers. And a funding arrangement often has one check at one end: a funder pays a project, and the people and places tied to the project may never enter the deal. Each of these did real work. Dependency assessments found exposure nobody had priced. Preserve maps found ground worth keeping. Water funds and watershed agreements brought dependents to the table. Frameworks such as TNFD's LEAP approach ask an organization to evaluate both its dependencies on nature and its impacts on it. That is close to these two questions, though an impact is what an organization does to nature, not who relies on it. The gap is less the questions than where the answers live: each in a different document, owned by a different team, with nothing moving along it. Read one way, a forest is either a supplier or a cause to fund. Read both ways, it is a node, related to what it draws on and to what draws on it. ## two lists for one forest Here is one node, worked through as an illustration, not a survey: the headwater forest on the Crystal River above Marble, Colorado, taken as one node. The river runs north to Carbondale, where it meets the Roaring Fork, which meets the Colorado at Glenwood Springs. Each line: the relation, then what moves along it. **List one: what the forest depends on.** - The snowpack on the ridges above it: water, and the timing of it - The beaver meadows on the valley floor beside it: a higher water table and a wetter edge - The fire regime of the slopes around it: how often fire comes, and how hot - The people who keep the trail and the ditch: work, care, and what they know about this ground **List two: what depends on the forest, in part.** - The Crystal River below it: the water the forest sheds, and shade on its banks - The trout: shade and cold water - The water intakes downstream: water with the sediment held back upstream - The ranches that grow hay on river water: a later, steadier flow - The rafting season near Carbondale: the same flow, and a reason to come - The Roaring Fork, and past it the Colorado: everything above, carried on Three of the places on those lists have accounts: the [Crystal River](/crystal-river.basin?from=guide), the [Roaring Fork](/roaring-fork.basin?from=guide), and the [Colorado](/colorado-river.basin?from=guide). The river is on the forest's second list, and parts of the forest drink from the river, so the arrow comes back. That is a cycle with an address. The city's version of these two questions is told in [your city is upstream and downstream at once](/guide/your-city-is-upstream-and-downstream-at-once?from=guide). ## any leg can sit on either list A node can be a place, a people, or a purpose, and any of them can sit on either list of any other. | node | leg | list one: what it depends on | list two: what depends on it | |---|---|---|---| | The headwater forest | A place | The snowpack, the beaver meadows, the fire regime, the trail and ditch crews | The trout, the intakes downstream, the hay ranches, the rafting season, the Roaring Fork | | The town | People | The forest, the aquifer, clean water, the crews who keep the ditch | Its residents, the businesses that need it to stay a town, the visitors who stay there | | Cold water | A purpose | Forest shade, the snowpack, the meadows' slow release, a stable climate | The trout, the anglers and outfitters who follow them, the reaches downstream | Read across and the legs mix: a place on a place (the forest on the meadow), a purpose on a purpose (cold water on a stable climate), people on people (the town on the crews who keep the ditch). Same-leg edges are ordinary. That the relation holds at any size and in any direction is the subject of [place, purpose, and people at any size](/guide/place-purpose-people-at-any-size?from=guide). ## relation first, value second, money third **Relation.** The lists say what this node is tied to, both ways: the forest and the town, the meadow and the trout, the keeper and the kept. **Value.** Along each relation something moves, in both directions: water, shade, held sediment, pollination, cold water, work, care, knowledge, meaning. Most of it is never priced. Its worth is in the forest and in the ties themselves, which is what [relational value](/guide/what-is-relational-value?from=guide) means. Harm moves on the same edges: smoke, runoff, sediment. A harm received is still a dependency, and [who depends on you](/guide/who-depends-on-you?from=guide) takes it up. **Money.** An account carries the share of that value money can carry. On list one, the account buys the certificates of the places it depends on and holds or trades the coins of the purposes it depends on. The town's account can hold the forest's certificate and the [clean water](/clean-water.ensurance?from=guide) coin. On list two, the forest's dependents hold its certificate and the coins that fund it, the coins of the purposes it serves, such as clean water: the town, the ranch, the outfitter, the account for cold water. They hold its certificate because they are already tied to it, not because they were asked to care. | | list one | list two | |---|---|---| | The relation | What provides my condition: upstream, upwind, along the corridor | Whose condition I provide: downstream, downwind, along the corridor | | What moves | Water, shade, work, care, knowledge, and harm, coming in | The same kinds, going out | | The money | This account buys their certificates and holds or trades their coins | They hold this account's certificate and the coins of the purposes it serves | So every node, in money terms, is a buyer on one list and is held by the other. Money follows the relation and the value and never stands in for them. The second list names who is tied to the forest; it does not say what the forest is worth, and the trout are not a position. Price is a bridge between the two ends of an arrow. When every node does both, the graph is the market: each real dependency has, at each end, a party with a reason to hold the other. What that means for liquidity is [a bid on both ends of every edge](/guide/a-bid-on-both-ends-of-every-edge?from=guide). Why a book shaped like the ecology carries its risk differently from a single check, and where that claim stops, is [no single funder, no single supplier](/guide/no-single-funder-no-single-supplier?from=guide). :::johnson **every account has two lists: what it depends on, and what depends on it. both are relations before they are trades.** Name the relation, then what moves along it, then the share an account can carry. [find the accounts on the map →](/explore?from=guide) ::: ## the plain words, and what exists - **Account:** what a place, a people, or a purpose holds in its own name. It is addressed to the living thing. A person or group keeps the place and signs; the account is not title, standing, or personhood, and it does not settle whose ground a place is. [Who pays for nature](/guide/who-pays-for-nature?from=guide) sets that out. - **Certificate:** a share in one named place or line ([specific ensurance](/specific?from=guide)). - **Coin:** a currency for a purpose or theme wider than one place ([general ensurance](/general?from=guide)), such as clean water or [climate stability](/climate-stability.ensurance?from=guide). - **Proceeds:** the routing that sends a set share of what one account receives onward. The account's operator sets the split. An account can hold another account's certificate and coins, and each account's page has a portfolio view of the assets and currencies it currently owns. Accounts do not create certificates or coins; people mint them. A person confirms each action unless they have switched a program on ([the account proposes, you confirm](/guide/the-account-proposes-you-confirm?from=guide)). The [explore map](/explore?from=guide) draws funding, membership, and relation edges and a dependency lens, not holdings or watershed edges, so holdings are read on the account's own page; drawing them on the map is planned. ## where to start Write the two lists for your own node, at any grain and anywhere (a páramo above a city's intake or a mangrove shore is a node too): what you are tied to upstream, what you are tied to downstream, and what moves along each. Then find which names on either list have an account on [the map](/explore?from=guide). The next post, [what you depend on](/guide/what-you-depend-on?from=guide), starts on list one. ## frequently asked questions ### what is a dependency graph? A dependency graph is a map of what relies on what. Software uses one to order a build, and a cycle is an error. In a landscape the arrows run both ways and cycles are normal, so every node has two lists: what it depends on, and what depends on it. ### can a place depend on another place? Yes. A forest depends on the snowpack above it and the meadow that holds the valley's water; a ranch depends on the reach upstream of its headgate. Place to place, purpose to purpose, and people to people are ordinary edges, and an account for one place can hold another place's certificate. ### is this just about money? No. The two lists are relations first, and most of what moves along them, such as water, shade, and care, is never priced. Money is the part of that value an account can carry: it buys the certificates of the places it depends on and holds or trades the coins of the purposes it depends on, and its dependents hold its certificate and the coins of the purposes it serves. A person confirms each purchase unless a program is switched on. ## sources [TNFD, "Guidance on the identification and assessment of nature-related issues: the LEAP approach"](https://tnfd.global/publication/additional-guidance-on-assessment-of-nature-related-issues-the-leap-approach/) — Locate the interface with nature, Evaluate dependencies and impacts, Assess risks and opportunities, Prepare to respond to and report on material issues. ## the series 1. [every account has two lists](/guide/every-account-has-two-lists?from=guide) — **read first:** relation, value, and money on both lists 2. [what you depend on](/guide/what-you-depend-on?from=guide) — the inward direction: the relations that provide your condition 3. [who depends on you](/guide/who-depends-on-you?from=guide) — the outward direction, and harm on the same edges 4. [a bid on both ends of every edge](/guide/a-bid-on-both-ends-of-every-edge?from=guide) — where liquidity comes from when dependents are the counterparties 5. [no single funder, no single supplier](/guide/no-single-funder-no-single-supplier?from=guide) — resilience by structure, and where the claim stops 6. [how to write your two lists](/guide/how-to-write-your-two-lists?from=guide) — find both lists, then act on both