Article XIV: Product Categories Defining Business Activity
Section 1: Product Categories
The law shall establish a taxonomy of Product Categories for use within the
Central Bank Payment System. The taxonomy shall define broad classes of labour,
production, distribution, services, digital outputs, and monetary or investment
activities that may be supplied or received through B-accounts or R-accounts.
Product Categories shall be expressed as literal identifiers using kebab-case and
enclosed in double quotation marks.
The taxonomy shall consist solely of coarse, high‑level Product Categories that are
stable over time. It may be amended only when strictly necessary to prevent fraud,
evasion, or tax avoidance, and shall not be expanded, subdivided, or refined for the
purpose of regulating, directing, or influencing production, trade, or investment.
The taxonomy shall be publicly accessible, general in application, and shall not
discriminate between Persons or classes of Persons.
A Product may be described by more than one Product Category.
The taxonomy shall classify every Product Category as exactly one of the following:
an R-category, which may be assigned only to R-accounts; or
a B-category, which may be assigned only to B-accounts.
The sets of R-categories and B-categories shall be mutually exclusive and together shall
comprise the complete set of Product Categories.
Each B-account shall be assigned exactly one B-category, and each R-account shall be
assigned exactly one R-category, when the account is created. The CBPS shall record the
assigned Product Category as part of the account data and reject the creation of an account
whose Product Category does not correspond to its account type. For any B-account or
R-account a, let 𝜬(a) denote the Product Category recorded on a.
The Product Category assigned to a B-account or R-account at creation is permanent and
shall not be altered.
Once a Product Category has been assigned to an account, its classification as an
R-category or B-category shall not be altered. Where a different classification is
necessary, the law shall create a new Product Category rather than reclassify the
existing Product Category.
The following Product Categories shall be B-categories:
"gift";
"finance";
"foreign-currency";
"import-wholesale";
"exporter";
"foreign-travel";
"foreign-investment"; and
"foreign-remittance".
The following Product Categories shall be R-categories:
"import-retail"; and
"foreign-currency-retail".
Section 2: Compatibility Relation
The law shall establish a Compatibility Relation 𝜥 over the set of Product
Categories. For any input category i and output category o,
𝜥(i, o) shall hold if, and only if, it is physically possible and economically
realistic for some product of category i to be required as an input to a
producer whose outputs fall exclusively within category o, or this Constitution
expressly permits payment for category i from accounts supplying category
o. Thus, i → o denotes the permitted flow of Products or services.
Payment for those Products or services flows in the opposite direction, from o
to i.
The Compatibility Relation shall be maximally permissive. It shall include all
supply‑chain relationships that are physically possible and economically realistic,
and may exclude only those relationships that are physically impossible or that would
constitute an attempt to disguise consumption as production.
For every R-category r and every Product Category x,
𝜥(r, x) shall be false.
The Compatibility Relation shall include the following foreign‑trade
relationships:
𝜥("foreign-currency", "import-wholesale") is true;
𝜥("import-wholesale", "import-retail") is true;
𝜥("foreign-currency", "foreign-currency-retail") is true;
𝜥("foreign-currency", "foreign-travel") is true;
𝜥("foreign-currency", "foreign-investment") is true;
𝜥("foreign-currency", "foreign-remittance") is true; and
𝜥("exporter", "foreign-currency") is true.
The Compatibility Relation shall include the following relationships for gifts and finance:
𝜥("gift", "gift") is true; and
𝜥("finance", "finance") is true.
The category of a B-account used to provide a purpose-specific foreign service shall be
"foreign-travel", "foreign-investment", or
"foreign-remittance", as applicable to the service provided.
The Compatibility Relation shall be publicly accessible.
Nothing in this Article shall be construed to regulate, direct, or influence
production, investment, or trade beyond the minimum necessary to enforce the tax
provisions of this Constitution.
Section 3: Business Activity
Business activity within the CBPS is conducted through B-accounts and R-accounts with an
assigned Product Category.
The Product Category assigned to an account describes the Products supplied through
that account.
No separate business registration, licence, approval, or legal entity is required.
The State's role is limited to maintaining the Product Category taxonomy, defining the
Compatibility Relation, and enforcing the associated transfer rules.
The State shall not use Product Categories to regulate ownership, control, organisational
structure, production, or trade.
No additional requirement for establishing, registering, licensing, or authorising a
business may be imposed on a Person who has accepted the Central Bank account owner contract.