Explore: Emergency Pause / Circuit-Breaker

[rober-m]

Summary

An emergency pause / circuit-breaker: a governed flag read as a reference input to halt sensitive actions during an incident (the Pausable analog). Thin by design; largely Config / Protocol Parameter Management (#20) plus the pluggable credential (#11).

Category: Building block

Status

To be researched. This candidate is listed in the catalog tracker but has not yet been explored in depth. This issue is a placeholder to collect prior art, use cases, and design questions before a full exploration writeup.

Why this is a candidate

• Ecosystem demand: A common safety feature for protocols that want an incident kill-switch.
• Reusability: Deliberately thin; likely a small pattern layered on Config (Explore: Config / Protocol Parameter Management #20) and the pluggable-Credential authorizer (Explore: Multisig / Smart Wallet #11) rather than a standalone contract.

To research

• Whether this is a standalone building block or just a documented pattern over Config (Explore: Config / Protocol Parameter Management #20) + credential (Explore: Multisig / Smart Wallet #11).
• Reference-input read of the pause flag and its effect on composability (no tx-shape assumptions).
• Governance of the flag: who may pause / unpause, and guards against abuse.
• Prior art on Cardano and other ecosystems (OpenZeppelin Pausable).

Exploration deliverables

• Prior-art survey (Cardano + OpenZeppelin Pausable)
• Standalone-block vs pattern-over-(Explore: Config / Protocol Parameter Management #20 + Explore: Multisig / Smart Wallet #11) decision
• Governance / authority model for the flag
• Lightweight design sketch
• Composability check against ARCHITECTURE.md
• Recommendation: implement now / later / never (with reason)