---
title: Pressure-Testing Mechanisms
date: 2026-02-10
summary: A practical way to test whether protocol and product assumptions hold up under stress.
tags:
  - mechanism-design
  - protocol
---

We treat mechanism design as an operational problem, not just a whiteboard problem.

Three questions catch most failure modes early:

1. What breaks under load?
2. What incentives drift over time?
3. What fails when users behave unexpectedly?

If a mechanism only works in perfect conditions, it is still a prototype.

Pressure-testing is less about predicting every outcome and more about removing fragile assumptions before launch.