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FAQ

Procurement-grade answers. Short, honest, no marketing voice. Pulled from real questions across the buying committee.

Adoption and status​

Is IRSForge production-ready?​

It is a reference implementation. IRS, OIS, and basis are wired end-to-end and tested. CDS templates and lifecycle are real; the pricing inputs run off a flat scalar stub by default (real credit feeds plug through the same OracleProvider seam used by SOFR). Cross-currency (fixed/float) ships end-to-end including multi-currency CSA mark publishing through the per-(ccy, indexId) curve book. ASSET-family lifecycle is gated until a price oracle is wired up. Rates desks running real flow should expect to harden the oracle and integrate their own KYC / AML / booking pipeline.

Are there live deployments today?​

Not yet. IRSForge is in pre-production reference shape. Integrators are evaluating; testnet bring-up is a parallel work track. The honest gap list for testnet / mainnet integration is in Deploying to Production.

What's the roadmap?​

SWPM/MARS parity Phases 0 to 6 are complete. Phases 7 / 8 / 9 (advanced risk, XVA, non-linear products) are out of scope for this release. Tracked work at github.com/sneg55/irsforge/issues.

License and support​

What's the license?​

AGPL v3.0. Use it, fork it, modify it. If you run it as a service to third parties, ship modifications back.

Is there commercial support?​

Not packaged today. The codebase is OSS and self-supportable: full Daml tests, full TypeScript tests, CI lint enforcement, monitoring hooks, documented runbooks. Commercial support is something an integrator can offer; IRSForge does not bundle it.

Who do we call when it breaks?​

In the OSS posture: GitHub issues, your own engineering team. The codebase is small enough (three build boundaries, one YAML) that a competent Canton-aware engineering team can own it. If your firm requires vendor SLA, that needs a commercial integrator relationship outside of IRSForge itself.

Cost of adoption​

How much engineering effort to deploy?​

In rough sizing:

  • Demo bring-up: make demo after make setup. Minutes.
  • Local production-shape (real OIDC, JWKS, no live curves): 1 person-day to flip the YAML, configure the IdP client, and verify the JWKS path.
  • Real oracle adapter (single vendor, single index): on the order of 200 to 400 LOC across one Daml template + one TS adapter + one YAML provider id. The NY Fed SOFR provider in-tree is the reference shape.
  • Multi-participant Canton network bring-up: depends on participant infrastructure already in place. The IRSForge-side YAML is small; the Canton-side participant / synchronizer / DAR-vetting work is the bulk.

How much does it cost to run?​

  • IRSForge components: one Node.js process for auth/, one for oracle/, one for the Next.js frontend. Modest CPU and memory.
  • Canton participant cost is whatever your participant stack costs you anyway.
  • No per-trade fees, no message-bus fees, no vendor licenses on the IRSForge side. Data-vendor licenses (SOFR, Markit, FX feeds) are per your vendor relationship.

Integration​

Can I plug in my own OIDC provider?​

Yes. auth.provider: oidc points at your IdP for user authentication. auth.builtin stays alongside it to mint Canton ledger JWTs (the layering is required because Canton speaks RS256 JWKS, not arbitrary IdP tokens). Schema-enforced. See BYO Auth.

Can I plug in my own oracle or data provider?​

Yes, three steps and zero forks:

  1. Implement the on-ledger Oracle.Interface.Provider in a new Daml template (mirror NYFedProvider.daml).
  2. Add a TS class implementing OracleProvider and call registerProvider in bootstrap-registrations.ts.
  3. Reference the provider id in irsforge.yaml.

The stub provider and the NY Fed SOFR provider both ship through this same seam. See BYO Oracle.

How do I add a currency or rate index?​

One YAML edit (currencies: or rateFamilies: in irsforge.yaml), then make generate-daml-config. No Daml or TypeScript changes needed. ESTR / SONIA were added this way in April 2026.

Can I run multi-participant instead of the single-sandbox demo?​

Yes. topology: network swaps the single-sandbox topology for a multi-participant Canton deployment with per-participant party hosting. Same DAR. See BYO Topology and Deploying to Production.

What's required from my Canton participant?​

A standard participant node, the IRSForge DAR uploaded and vetted, and irsforge.yaml configured with your Canton party identifiers. The participant's JSON API needs to validate JWTs against the IRSForge auth service's JWKS (--auth=rs-256-jwks=<authPublicUrl>/.well-known/jwks.json).

Data and privacy​

How does the regulator-observer model work?​

Every swap-related contract includes the configured regulators: [Party] as observers at creation. The regulator sees full lifecycle, marks, settlement, and disputes on-ledger. Counterparties don't see each other's positions. Sub-transaction privacy is enforced by Canton, not by IRSForge.

Can I run multiple regulators across jurisdictions?​

Yes. The schema allows ≥ 1 regulator org and regulators: [Party] threads through every relevant template. Each regulator party becomes an observer on the contracts it is configured for.

Where does my market data live?​

On the ledger as Observation / Curve / CurveSnapshot contracts, signed by the configured oracle provider party. Subscribers configured under the provider see the data; everyone else does not. You bring the data license; IRSForge does not redistribute licensed feeds.

Where does my data physically reside?​

Wherever your Canton participant is deployed. IRSForge is not a hosted SaaS; the ledger and the application both run on your infrastructure (or your platform operator's, in the network topology).

Security​

Is settlement really atomic?​

Atomic per leg, not across legs. TriggerLifecycle (rate effects) and Settle (cash) are separate transactions, by design. This is also how ISDA describes IRS settlement. IRSForge does not claim cross-leg atomicity.

How are credentials handled?​

Service-account secrets live as bcrypt hashes in auth/service-accounts.yaml (gitignored), with raw secrets in environment variables on the oracle host. Tokens are short-lived (15 min default) and refreshed at 80% TTL. Detailed posture in Security & Trust and Service Accounts.

What if a key is compromised?​

Per-key recovery procedures in Security & Trust. Short version: service-account secrets rotate via auth + oracle restart. RS256 keys rotate via multi-key JWKS. IdP secrets rotate per your IdP procedure.

Can I use an HSM for the RS256 key?​

Operationally compatible. Not packaged in-tree. Replace the file-system key load in auth/ with your HSM client.

Compliance​

Does IRSForge produce DTCC GTR / EMIR / MiFID / SFTR reports?​

Not natively. Regulator-as-observer gives you the underlying data on-ledger; the wire-format and reporting cadence is integrator scope. Most compliance teams already have a reporting pipeline; pointing it at the ledger is the integration step.

Does IRSForge handle KYC / AML / sanctions?​

No. These belong upstream of the proposal. IRSForge assumes counterparties and operators have already passed onboarding by the time their party is provisioned.

Are FpML imports / exports legally equivalent to the originals?​

The schema round-trip is faithful for the FpML-expressible families (IRS, OIS, basis, XCCY). The Accept choice on the resulting Daml contract is the binding execution. Whether the FpML XML retrieved from the ledger constitutes a confirmation of record under your firm's policy is a question for your legal team, not IRSForge.

How does this satisfy ISDA conventions?​

Day-count, roll, schedule, business-day adjustment, and floating-index compounding are consumed from Daml Finance's V3.Types.Date modules as ISDA-shaped. Holiday calendars are informational only on a 24/7 ledger (continuous settlement does not pause for holidays). See Compliance & Audit.

UX​

Does the workspace work on a phone?​

Not for serious use. The blotter, leg composer, and CSA ladder are dense desktop UIs designed for ≥ 1440px screens, mirroring Bloomberg / Reuters terminals. Mobile renders, but trade entry and the action panel assume desktop. A read-only mobile blotter view is roadmap.

Browser support?​

Modern Chrome / Safari / Firefox. The frontend uses standard React 19 + Next.js 16; no IE-era compatibility shims.

Accessibility?​

Tailwind + shadcn/ui primitives ship with reasonable a11y defaults. There is no formal WCAG audit; that's integrator scope if your procurement requires it.

Product​

Why hedge on Canton at all?​

If your positions are not on Canton, you don't. IRSForge serves desks that already have on-chain exposure (tokenized treasuries, repo books, private credit on Canton) and want to hedge that exposure with an instrument that settles on the same ledger. Hedging an on-chain position with an off-chain instrument introduces settlement risk between the two legs.

Can I see CDS or XCCY end-to-end before integrating?​

IRS and OIS are end-to-end in the demo. CDS books, prices, and lifecycles against a flat scalar stub (default 2% probability, 40% recovery); a real credit feed plugs through the same OracleProvider seam used by SOFR. Cross-currency books, prices, and marks against the multi-currency curve book + on-ledger FxSpot. The ledger model and lifecycle are real for all three families.

What about swaptions, caps, floors, CMS?​

Not modeled. SWPM covers these; IRSForge ships linear rates + CDS only. Out of scope for this release.

See also​