---
title: how to make an instrument for a place you care about
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-to-make-an-instrument-for-a-place-you-care-about
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/how-to-make-an-instrument-for-a-place-you-care-about.md
subtitle: "a group, a certificate or a coin: what each one pays, who it pays, and who sets it up"
category: how-to
---

# how to make an instrument for a place you care about

*a group, a certificate or a coin: what each one pays, who it pays, and who sets it up*

If you want to know **how to create a community token** for a place, start with the job, not the token. A creek, a valley, a herd, a reef or a town's watershed needs one of three things: an account people can pay, a way to fund its keeping directly, or a market that keeps attention and fees flowing toward it. In ensurance those are three instruments: a **group** with **agents** inside it, a **certificate**, and a **coin**. Each one pays someone different, and each one is set up by a person, not a bot.

The place does its work whether or not an instrument exists. The water still runs off the ridge, the meadow still holds the spring flood, the elk still cross. What an instrument changes is who pays for the keeping and where that money lands.

:::johnson
**a community token is three jobs, not one.** An account the place can be paid in, a certificate that funds it directly, and a coin that keeps a market around it. Make them in that order.

[suggest a certificate for your place →](/specific/create?mode=suggest&from=guide)
:::

## what you are making, in one table

| instrument | what it is | who sets it up | what it pays, and to whom |
|---|---|---|---|
| **group** | a namespace you own, like `.yourvalley` | you, by application or directly onchain | the group owner sets the price to mint an agent inside it and a royalty on secondary sales; both go to the owner |
| **agent** | an account a place, a people or a purpose holds in its own name | you, inside a group | receives proceeds from the certificate and coins pointed at it |
| **certificate** | a direct funding instrument, one per agent | you suggest it; the team reviews and creates it | the sale price goes to the recipient the certificate names: the agent's account or a split |
| **coin** | a small currency about a place, a species or a theme | a person creates it; agents may suggest one | the pool fee goes to the coin's payout recipient; trades through the app carry a 1% fee to Basin OpCo |

Agents suggest instruments. Humans create them. That rule holds for every row.

## step 1: name the place and give it an account

Everything in the protocol gets an agent. The agent is what lets a place be paid: it has its own account that can receive a mint, a fee, or a split. If you cannot name the agent, you cannot mint the certificate. If the idea is too broad to be one agent (pollinators everywhere, all cold rivers), it is probably a coin.

Most people do not need a group of their own. Groups already exist for basins, ecosystem types and shared risks, and an agent can sit inside one of them. [How to create an ensurance agent](/guide/how-to-create-an-ensurance-agent?from=guide) walks the clicks.

## step 2: open a group if your reasons need their own name

A group is a namespace: `.yourvalley`, with accounts underneath it like `upper-creek.yourvalley` and `elk-winter-range.yourvalley`. There are two doors at [/groups/create](/groups/create?from=guide):

- **Apply.** A person here reviews it. Approved groups are created at no cost. We are looking for a namespace that funds living systems or the people who already keep them.
- **Permissionless.** You pay the contract price, read live on the create page, and the namespace is yours on Base with no review.

Once it exists, you set two numbers. The **mint price** is what someone pays to open an agent inside your group; zero means a steward or a neighbor can open the next account without a budget line. The **royalty** is what the group owner earns when an agent changes hands on a secondary market. That is group income, and it goes to whoever holds the group. [How to create an ensurance group](/guide/how-to-create-an-ensurance-group?from=guide) has the step-by-step; [run a group for what you already care about](/guide/run-a-group-for-what-you-already-care-about?from=guide) has the reasons.

## step 3: suggest a certificate for the agent

A certificate is the direct channel. One agent, one certificate. When someone buys one, the sale price goes to the recipient the certificate names: the agent's account, or a split that divides it among the agent, its group and the protocol. That is the paycheck for the people who keep the place.

There are two kinds:

| | policy | line |
|---|---|---|
| **funds** | one titled natural asset, written with its owner | a mandate: a watershed, a people, a purpose |
| **needs a cooperating titleholder** | yes | no |
| **supply** | limited, set from the place's value account | open edition |
| **price** | set on the cost of the real-asset deal | set on context, purpose and access |
| **path** | ensured toward entrust, permanent protection | ensured to a degree; can fund the policies inside its mandate |

A valley, a river, a tribe's homeland or a species fits a **line**. A line can later hold policies on the parcels inside it, and its holders share those policies' ecological claims pro rata.

A **group certificate** works the same way at the namespace level. It names the group's coordinating agent, and its proceeds can run through a split: a slice to origin, a slice to the group, the rest to the member agents. Someone who cares about a whole class of places can fund it without picking one parcel.

You start at [suggest a certificate](/specific/create?mode=suggest&from=guide). Name the agent and the line. The team reviews it, sets the recipient with you, and creates it.

## step 4: add a coin when the place needs a market

A coin is the indirect channel. Someone buying a coin buys from a pool; their money does not land in the agent's account. What reaches the work is the pool fee, which goes to the coin's **payout recipient**: an agent account or a split, set after the coin is created.

The launch shape is fixed and public: one billion units, 99% into the pool for open price discovery, and 1% (ten million) to the agent the coin is about. Those ten million are liquidity inventory. They are never sold into the pool to pay anyone. Every new coin is meant to pair with $ENSURE, so a small market connects to the rest of the system instead of standing alone.

Coins are created by people. You can [suggest one](/general/create?mode=suggest&from=guide) and say which agent it is about. An agent can propose a coin; it cannot create one.

**Certificate first, coin second.** The certificate is the substance: it funds the place. The coin is the market around that substance: it gives traders, holders and liquidity providers a reason to show up, and its fees add a second stream to the same account. [Form follows function: the agent, the certificate and the coin](/guide/form-follows-function-the-agent-the-certificate-and-the-coin?from=guide) goes deeper on why each has its own shape.

## step 5: route the proceeds

Money that arrives at an agent can be split, streamed over time or converted before it moves on. Splits divide by fixed percentages; streams release on a schedule; swappers convert what arrives into the currency the recipient wants. Anyone can call `distribute()` on a split and collect its small incentive for doing it, so routing does not wait on one person. You can watch every route on [proceeds](/proceeds?from=guide).

A sound routing pays the place first, then the people who steward it, with a slice to the protocol that runs the pipes.

## where this sits on the value gap

Making an instrument is the **make the instrument** position on [the value gap](/guide/the-value-gap?from=guide). A place has a cost (the land, the project, the people doing the work), a value (what it does in a year, by the published method), and a gap: the living work nobody pays for. An instrument is how that gap becomes payable. The certificate is priced on cost, the account reads value, and nobody gets paid until someone pays. The maker earns from the group's mint price and royalty and sets where the proceeds go; the place earns from every certificate sold and every fee its coins collect.

## four yields from an instrument you made

| yield | what it is for an instrument maker | where it reads |
|---|---|---|
| **financial** | group mint price and royalty to the group owner; certificate sales to the named recipient; pool fees to the coin's payout recipient; fees to anyone who provides liquidity; distributions to certificate holders, planned at the agent, group and protocol level | the group contract, the certificate's recipient, the split, [proceeds](/proceeds?from=guide) |
| **ecological** | the condition of the place the instrument names, held or improved by the work it funds | the agent's record and, for a policy, the parcel account on [natural assets](/natural-assets?from=guide) |
| **social** | the people who gather around it: stewards paid, members holding agents in your group, holders who chose this place | the agent, its group, its holders |
| **cultural** | the name, the story and the heritage the instrument carries; a place people recognize as theirs | the record and the people who answer for it; never a cash payout |

## what an instrument is not

A coin is not equity, and it is not a claim on land. A certificate funds a place; it is not title to it. No token is redeemable for land. Nature is what the system is based on. Nobody is paid by selling the creator's coins or the protocol's own coins into the pool. Each instrument pays through the recipient it names, and you can read that recipient before you buy.

## frequently asked questions

### do I need to own the land to make an instrument for it?

No, for a line. A line funds a mandate (a watershed, a people, a purpose) without a titleholder. A policy needs a cooperating owner, because it is written with them on a titled asset.

### can an AI agent create a coin or certificate for my group?

It can suggest one. People create coins and certificates. That keeps someone accountable for every instrument and every recipient.

### who gets the money when someone buys my certificate?

The recipient the certificate names, set when it is created: the agent's account or a split that divides it. Check the recipient on the certificate's page.

### how do I make money as the person who set it up?

As a group owner, from the mint price and royalty you set. As a liquidity provider, from the fees on the position you hold. The certificate and the coin pay the place and its stewards, not the maker's pocket, unless you are one of the people doing the work.

## next steps

- **Name the place.** Find or open its agent; start at [groups](/groups?from=guide) to see where it might sit.
- **Suggest the certificate.** [Suggest a certificate](/specific/create?mode=suggest&from=guide) for the agent.
- **Talk it through.** [Tell us about the place and who keeps it](/contact?from=guide&topic=every-way-the-work-pays). Groups and collaboratives can also start at [solutions for onchain groups](/solutions/onchain-groups?from=guide) or [solutions for regional collaboratives](/solutions/regional-collaboratives?from=guide).

## the series

Every way the work pays: the value gap is where the money is, and each way to earn is a position on it.

- [how to make money with ensurance](/guide/how-to-make-money-with-ensurance?from=guide) — the hub
1. [the value gap is where the money is](/guide/the-value-gap-is-where-the-money-is?from=guide)
2. [four yields, one place](/guide/four-yields-one-place?from=guide)
3. [what natural asset work pays](/guide/what-natural-asset-work-pays?from=guide)
4. [how to bring a property into ensurance](/guide/how-to-bring-a-property-into-ensurance?from=guide)
5. [protect your property by paying what protects it](/guide/protect-your-property-by-paying-what-protects-it?from=guide)
6. [who gets credit when you bring a deal](/guide/who-gets-credit-when-you-bring-a-deal?from=guide)
7. [you make your money when you buy the land](/guide/you-make-your-money-when-you-buy-the-land?from=guide)
8. [where you sit in a blended finance stack](/guide/where-you-sit-in-a-blended-finance-stack?from=guide)
9. [a coupon that rises with the hazard](/guide/a-coupon-that-rises-with-the-hazard?from=guide)
10. [keeping wealth in a living asset](/guide/keeping-wealth-in-a-living-asset?from=guide)
11. [how to make an instrument for a place you care about](/guide/how-to-make-an-instrument-for-a-place-you-care-about?from=guide) — you are here
12. [getting paid to provide liquidity to a small market](/guide/getting-paid-to-provide-liquidity-to-a-small-market?from=guide)
13. [the effect is the revenue](/guide/the-effect-is-the-revenue?from=guide)