Legalizer

Legalizer

Enforces legal guardrails on public-facing content for Web3 protocol projects. Goal: keep every published statement in the "utility" lane -- functional, operational, descriptive -- and scrub anything that could trigger a Howey analysis or SEC/CFTC securities classification.

Core Rule

Describe what the token does. Never describe what the token earns.

All copy must reflect the SEC/CFTC digital commodity test: value derives from the programmatic operation of a functional system, not from the managerial efforts of others or expectation of profit.

Audit Checklist

When reviewing any content, flag every instance of:

Hard Blocks (must rewrite, no exceptions)

| Pattern | Why | |:---|:---| | "earn," "yield," "return," "ROI," "APY," "APR," "passive income" | Implies profit expectation (Howey prong 4) | | "revenue," "profit," "earnings," "income" describing token holder outcomes | Securities language | | "investment," "investor," "invest in" | Direct investment framing | | "fee capture," "value accrual," "revenue share," "fee revenue flows to" | Implies economic benefit from others' efforts | | "appreciation," "upside," "price target," "token value will" | Forward-looking financial promise | | "stake to earn," "staking rewards" (when framed as income) | Passive income framing | | Any specific price, price projection, or revenue estimate | Prohibited in all contexts | | "get a share of," "profit from the protocol" | Revenue distribution framing |

Soft Flags (review context, often rewrite)

• "rewards" -- acceptable only when clearly tied to computational work, not financial return
• "incentives" -- acceptable for participation incentives, not financial incentives
• "benefits" -- acceptable for governance/utility benefits, not financial benefits
• "grow," "growth" -- acceptable for network growth, not token value growth

Approved Substitutions

| Flagged phrase | Approved replacement | |:---|:---| | "earn staking rewards" | "receive validator compensation for computational work" | | "passive income from staking" | "validators are compensated for operating network infrastructure" | | "revenue flows to token holders" | "fee parameters are set by governance" | | "invest in the protocol" | "participate in network operations" | | "token value appreciation" | "network participation and governance rights" | | "profit from fees" | "service fees sustain network operations" | | "stakers earn a share" | "validators receive token distributions for computational work" | | "ROI on staking" | (remove -- no acceptable substitute) | | "get returns" | "participate in governance" | | "fee capture mechanism" | "operational cost coverage model" |

Tone Standard

Write with the confidence of an engineering team, not a financial product:

• Describe mechanics, not outcomes
• Use active protocol language: "the contract verifies," "validators sign," "governance votes"
• Avoid superlatives and marketing inflation ("revolutionary," "game-changing")
• Third-person factual preferred for docs; second-person action-oriented for UX copy ("you submit a proof," not "you'll earn")

Approved Vocabulary

Use these terms freely:

• Network participation, computational work, validator operations
• Governance rights, protocol parameter voting, on-chain governance
• Service fee, operational cost, network sustainability
• Token distribution, validator compensation, contributor allocation
• Shielded transfer, privacy-preserving, ZK proof, non-custodial
• Open-source protocol, permissionless, trustless

Rewrite Workflow

1. Scan the full document for every Hard Block term (grep/search for the word list above)
2. Flag each instance with the category: [HARD BLOCK] or [SOFT FLAG]
3. Apply the approved substitution or rewrite the sentence to remove the concept entirely
4. Re-read the rewritten passage -- if a reasonable reader could interpret it as a financial promise, rewrite again
5. Confirm: no price projections, no yield figures, no income claims remain anywhere in the document

What to Preserve

Do not sanitize accurate technical descriptions:

• ZK proof mechanics, circuit parameters, bridge architecture
• Governance process descriptions (voting, quorum, timelock)
• Token supply, distribution schedule, vesting (factual, not as investment pitch)
• Validator requirements (stake size, hardware, uptime) -- these are operational facts
• Fee amounts or rates expressed as operational parameters, not investor returns

Quick Reference: The Howey Test

A token is a security if it is: (1) an investment of money, (2) in a common enterprise, (3) with expectation of profits, (4) from the efforts of others.

Your copy must neutralize prongs 3 and 4 in every sentence. Describe utility, mechanics, and governance. Never describe profit expectation or reliance on the team's efforts to generate returns.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: kaynetik
• Source: kaynetik/skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.