Transparency: Openness & Accountability
Assessing how openly a project operates and communicates with its community
What is Transparency?
Transparency is the first T of STRICT. It asks whether outsiders can see and check what the team and the protocol do. The rating weighs who the team is, how governance decisions are made, and how openly the project reports progress and incidents.
How the Transparency number is set
For every coin, the research step records a Transparency rating from 0 to 10 in the coin's input set, with a written rationale and the pages it cites. A report prints that rating times 10, on the 0 to 100 scale. The engine multiplies it by the Transparency weight of the coin's sector profile and adds the other rated pillars the same way. It divides that sum by the weights in use and rounds to a whole number: the result is the STRICT score.
A pillar without a rating is left out of both the sum and the weights in use, so the other pillars carry the score. It is never scored as zero.
Transparency weight in each sector profile
The engine reads one weight table for every coin. Across its 9 sector profiles, the Transparency weight runs from 0.12 to 0.24. The six weights of each profile add up to 1.00.
| Profile and sectors | Sectors (coins) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Monetary | Store of Value (3) | 0.12 |
| Network protocol | Smart Contract Platform (30), Layer 1 (34), Layer 2 (25) | 0.14 |
| Financial protocol | DeFi (142), Exchange (20), Launchpad (5) | 0.16 |
| Technical infrastructure | Infrastructure (97), AI (94), DePIN (17), Privacy (20), Identity (7), Wallet (5), Social (7), IoT (3), Telecom (2) | 0.14 |
| Payments and RWA | RWA (91), Payments (20) | 0.20 |
| Adoption-led | Meme (61), Gaming (55), Entertainment (6), NFT (10), Sports (5) | 0.12 |
| Stable asset | Stablecoin (108) | 0.24 |
| Derivative | Wrapped Token (32), Liquid Staking (37) | 0.20 |
| Balanced | Any sector without its own profile, including Other (34) | 0.17 |
Key Evaluation Factors
Team Identity & Credentials
Knowing who is building a project is fundamental to establishing trust and accountability.
- Publicly disclosed team members with verifiable identities
- Relevant experience and track record in crypto or tech
- Active social media presence and public engagement
Governance Structure
Clear governance processes ensure decisions are made transparently and with community input.
- Documented governance framework and processes
- Active community participation in governance votes
- Track record of implementing passed proposals
Communication & Reporting
Regular updates keep the community informed and demonstrate ongoing progress.
- Frequency and quality of development updates
- Publicly accessible and regularly updated roadmap
- Transparent communication during incidents or setbacks
Where the evidence comes from
The input set of every coin must give each rated pillar a written rationale and at least one source address. A report never lists a page of this site as a source, and neither does the count below.
353 of the 935 input sets on file cite a third-party page for Transparency. The sites they cite most often:
- github.com: 134 citations
- etherscan.io: 35 citations
- coingecko.com: 24 citations
- basescan.org: 11 citations
- bscscan.com: 10 citations
Worked example: Bitcoin
Bitcoin is in the monetary profile, where Transparency weighs 0.12. Its Transparency rating is 90, so this pillar adds 90 × 0.12 = 10.80 to the weighted sum. The weighted mean of all its rated pillars rounds to its published STRICT score of 92.
The rationale recorded in its input set of 15 Oct 2026:
Bitcoin Core source code, pull requests, and release signatures are open for public verification. Protocol changes require open mailing-list review and consensus among node operators.
Sources it cites
The rarity bands apply to the final STRICT score, never to one pillar on its own. They are published in full here: Rarity bands
- Legendary90-100
- Epic80-89
- Rare70-79
- Uncommon60-69
- Common0-59
Engine v5.2.0. Every figure on this page is read from the engine and the coin registry when the page is built. Latest analysis in the registry: 22 Oct 2026.
See Cryptos Ranked by Transparency
Browse cryptocurrencies sorted by their Transparency score.
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