Load-Bearing Node
NOUN · AI PROVENANCE
A load-bearing node is one an output claim actually stands on — an ancestor of at least one claim in the Thread. Only load-bearing nodes count in any quality metric. Nodes wired to nothing are orphans: displayed, flagged, and excluded from every metric — which is why padding a Thread can't move its score.
In plain language
The oldest way to game any metric is inflation: add cheap units until the ratio looks good. Fifty junk web fetches would pump a naive confirmed ratio, dilute a naive opacity ratio, and pad a naive depth — without grounding a single claim the output actually makes. The load-bearing rule kills the whole move: if a node isn't an ancestor of a claim, it doesn't exist as far as the metrics are concerned.
And wiring junk into a claim doesn't work either — under weakest-link grounding, an extra premise can only drag a claim down, never lift it. Between the two rules, there is exactly one way to improve a Thread's score: actually ground the claims.
See it live
Every node in Thread TT-0001 is load-bearing — wired to the claim it supports. Twenty junk nodes wouldn't move a single number on its scorecard.
Pull Thread TT-0001 →Related terms
TERM COINED BY TRUSTTHREAD · FIRST PUBLISHED 2026-07-18 · DEFINITION V1 · THIS PAGE IS THE CANONICAL SOURCE