SIGNAL handbook

Entry into SIGNAL starts from a personal profile, built with your email and tax code. The tax code is encrypted at rest: only the system sees it, and only decrypts it for you when you open your profile.

After signup you receive a confirmation email. From then on you can enter with email and password whenever you want. The session stays valid for 30 days and refreshes itself as long as you keep using it.

Resonance is the first gesture: a short presence questionnaire, filled in once. It exists to tune you with the field, not to judge you. Those arriving answer it, not those who already know everything.

Once sent, the Resonance is read by the Team. The outcome can be Approved (you enter freely) or Observation (you enter, and we touch base briefly). From there on you have access to the board, the map, exchanges and channels.

SIG is the currency of the Time Bank: it circulates care, work and skill among the people of the network. It is not bought: it is earned by offering, spent by receiving.

You decide what your hour is worth. When you publish a service you set how many SIG/hour you offer it at: some pick 1, some 5, some 20. The value is yours to set, based on the kind of work, your time, your experience.

As a practical reference, 1 SIG corresponds to 1 euro: a conventional value compass, useful especially when a service also involves cash payment (for in-person ones).

For in-person services you can also accept cash, if you choose to: you state it in the card. For online services payment is always in SIG.

Your balance is in the Wallet. From there you see inflows, outflows and the history of closed exchanges.

The board is where the community tells what it offers and what it seeks. Each entry is a card: who publishes, what it is about, in which mode (online or in person), in which area, at how many SIG per hour.

You can filter by OFFER or REQUEST, by category, and by delivery mode (Online or In person). If your GPS is active, nearby cards come first, automatically. The approximate distance appears at the bottom of each card.

To publish your own card go to "New service". In-person cards require an active GPS: this avoids a declared area being disconnected from where you actually are. Online cards are free from this constraint.

The map shows the active presences of the network, each one in its point. The point you see is always approximate: the exact position stays encrypted and never leaves the server.

From your profile you decide whether to be visible on the map and at what precision (exact within 100 meters only for verified profiles, approximate within 1 km as the default, city level for those who prefer even more reserve).

The map exists to feel the field around you, find nearby references, and activate real exchanges with those who are already there.

From your panel you can trigger an SOS when urgent help is needed. The signal reaches the nearby network within the radius you set, and arrives to those who chose to be reachable for emergencies.

The Emergencies section gathers alerts for your area from official sources — seismic (USGS, EMSC), natural disasters (GDACS), weather (Meteoalarm), health (WHO), humanitarian crises (ReliefWeb) and official gazettes — and from monitored, unverified sources (flagged with a badge): conflicts (GDELT) and network outages (Netblocks). They do not replace 112: they stand alongside, giving context.

Beyond the official sources, anyone who has joined the network can publish their own area alert — a weather warning, a disaster, an ongoing issue. From the «New alert» button you choose whether to use GPS or enter the address manually; the post shows your first and last name, so the area knows who reported it.

Three tools, three different uses. SOS is a personal call for help: it is for when you, in first person, need someone close in real time (a fall, getting lost, sudden illness, an immediate hand). The Emergencies section gathers official area alerts from public sources (seismic, weather, health) and also hosts area alerts published by the network: anyone approved can manually add an alert — a weather warning, a disaster, an ongoing issue — using GPS or address. The service Board is where you offer or look for things in daily life, including urgent and practical ones.

Drinking water issues, gas, blackouts: if they are facts that concern the area but not a single person, there are two complementary paths. One is the board, to organise the response — «I offer bottled drinking water», «I seek a water reserve for the night». The other is a new alert under Emergencies, to warn the area about the ongoing fact: the publisher appears with first and last name, so people know who reported it.

Practical examples: you have a wound and cannot go out → SOS. You read in the news that water is not drinkable and want to warn the area → new alert under Emergencies with GPS or address. You also want to organise the concrete response → service on the board, health or daily category, in-person mode. You need a ride to the pharmacy → urgent in-person service. You feel an earthquake → the official alert arrives on its own under Emergencies.

When you propose or accept an exchange, a dedicated conversation opens between you and the other person. There you agree on times, place or online setup. The conversation stays private between the two of you.

When the exchange is closed, SIG are transferred automatically from the receiver's balance to the offerer's balance. The history stays in the Wallet, and the card can be reviewed.

From your profile you manage name, photo, bio, location, map visibility, notification and privacy preferences. Every sensitive field (tax code, exact location) is encrypted server-side with keys that do not leave the infrastructure.

You can disable location at any moment: without an active GPS, map and board gently "lock" — they stay visible in the menu, but greet you with a message inviting you to re-enable location.

To leave the field, at the bottom of the profile you find account deletion. It is a definitive gesture: it removes your data and encrypts the residual trace.

Your exact location and tax code are encrypted (AES-256): the system keeps them and shows them only to you. On the map, the point others see is always approximate — the precise position never leaves the server.

The maps do not go through Google or other commercial services: the images come from OpenStreetMap and CARTO, which do not profile you. There are no advertising trackers on SIGNAL: no Analytics, no social pixels. Nobody follows you while you browse.

You decide how much to show: from your profile you choose whether to appear on the map and with what precision, and you can turn it off whenever you want. At the bottom of the profile there is account deletion: a definitive gesture that removes your data.