How Underwriting Works

Underwriting is the heart of Trilobyte. Before a loan is ever created, a Pool Manager assesses the borrower and decides whether to lend, how much, and on what terms. Unlike crypto lending that only asks "what assets do you already hold?", Trilobyte underwrites on the real economy — a business's actual cash flow and, where applicable, real-world assets pledged as collateral.

Underwritten on verified cash flow

The foundation of a Trilobyte assessment is real, verifiable revenue — not self-reported numbers.

A borrower connects a trusted source of their cash flow — for example a payment processor, merchant account, or accounting system. Trilobyte reads the borrower's incoming payment history directly from that source, so the loan is underwritten on what the business actually earns, not on figures typed into a form.

Cash-flow sources are pluggable. A borrower can connect different kinds of verified revenue data; the underwriting methodology is the same regardless of the source.

This is what lets Trilobyte serve creditworthy businesses that traditional lenders turn away for lacking conventional collateral or a long credit file — their payment history is the evidence.

The methodology — the Five C's of credit

Trilobyte's risk assessment follows the long-established Five C's of credit, the same framework professional lenders have used for decades:

• Capacity — Can the business afford the loan? Driven by the connected cash-flow data (revenue level, trend, stability, and debt-service coverage).

• Capital — The financial health of the business (its own stake versus its existing obligations).

• Collateral — What backs the loan if it isn't repaid (the manager's stake, and any real-world asset the borrower pledges).

• Character — The borrower's track record and reliability.

• Conditions — The market and sector the business operates in.

Each factor contributes to a single, transparent risk grade.

Data-driven, with professional judgment

Trilobyte blends two inputs:

• Auto-derived from connected data — factors the cash-flow source can prove directly, such as average revenue, revenue trend, income stability, and how comfortably the business's cash flow covers the proposed repayments.

• The manager's professional assessment — factors that come from documents, references, or the manager's own diligence (balance-sheet health, repayment history, pledged collateral).

The data leads where it has signal; the manager fills in what the data can't see. The two are additive — a manager's input never overrides what the verified data shows.

Affordability comes first

A loan must fit the borrower's cash flow. Trilobyte's underwriting requires that a business's verified income comfortably covers the repayments before a manager approves a loan — so a borrower is never lent more than they can realistically service, no matter how strong the rest of the profile looks.

Skin in the game

Underwriting isn't just an opinion. Every Pool Manager stakes their own capital as collateral against the loans they originate. If a loan defaults, the manager's stake is at risk first — aligning the underwriter's incentives directly with investors'.

Transparent terms, private model

Every loan's terms — amount, rate, and repayment schedule — are recorded on-chain for investors to verify before they fund it. Those terms are set by this documented assessment rather than a black box, so investors lend against a clear, methodology-driven grade.

What stays proprietary is the exact model a manager uses — the specific weightings, thresholds, and scoring logic are part of an underwriter's edge, just as they are at any lender. Trilobyte standardises the framework and the transparency, while leaving the judgment to professionals.