The Anti-Extractive Derivative: The tl;dr

Want the formal proofs? See: Full Academic Paper

The Problem in One Sentence

Normal businesses make more money by cutting costs, which usually means cutting quality.

The Solution

Lock the margin so the only way to grow profit is to grow volume, and the only way to grow volume is to increase quality.

The Math (Don’t Panic)

Normal business:
Profit = (Price - Cost) × Volume

You can increase profit by:

  1. Raising price (customers leave)
  2. Cutting cost (quality drops)
  3. Increasing volume (hard)

Option 2 is easiest. So quality drops everywhere.

Cost+20% business:
Price = Cost × 1.20 (locked)

Now:
Profit = 0.20 × Cost × Volume

You can increase profit by:

  1. Increasing cost (which means better quality, which means higher price, which is fine because margin stays 20%)
  2. Increasing volume (which requires… quality)

There is no option to cut corners. If you cut cost, you cut margin. The math doesn’t let you cheat.

The “Derivative” Part

In calculus, a derivative shows the rate of change. In normal businesses:

dProfit/dQuality = often negative 
(quality costs money, reduces margin)

In Cost+20% businesses:

dProfit/dQuality = positive 
(quality attracts volume, volume is the only lever)

We flipped the sign. Quality now helps instead of hurts.

Why This Matters

Every race to the bottom is companies trying to cut costs faster than competitors. We opted out of that race.

If you copy our model, we don’t lose — the whole industry gets better. Try explaining that to a VC.

The Wry Part

Economists have known for a century that the “market for lemons” creates perverse incentives. Nobody fixed it because fixing it requires giving up margin flexibility, and nobody wants to do that.

We did. It was that simple. (Not easy. Simple.)

You’ve reached the end of the loop!

Back to the beginning: Three-Gear Currency — now you see how they all connect.

The Full Circle

Three-Gear Currency (fair access)
        ↓
Ghost Credits (test before you build)
        ↓
300 Framework (organize without bureaucracy)
        ↓
Boaz Principle (generosity by design)
        ↓
Anti-Extractive Derivative (quality by math)
        ↓
Back to Three-Gear... (because now you see WHY fair access matters)

Each innovation supports the others. Remove one, and the system weakens. Together, they’re anti-fragile.

“I don’t know! It’s a mystery!” — Shakespeare in Love