📊Balances

The Balance system in BitBadges is designed to represent ownership of badges across different IDs and time ranges. This document explains the Balance interface and how to interpret complex balance structures.

Ownership times are a new concept to BitBadges allowing you to set that someone owns a badge during a specific time but not other times.

Balance Interface

export interface Balance<T extends NumberType> {
  amount: T;
  badgeIds: UintRange<T>[];
  ownershipTimes: UintRange<T>[];
}

• amount: The quantity of badges owned.

• badgeIds: An array of ID ranges representing the badges owned.

• ownershipTimes: An array of time ranges during which the badges are owned.

Interpreting Balances

When interpreting balances, it's crucial to understand that multiple ranges of badge IDs and ownership times within a single Balance structure represent all possible combinations.

Interpretation Algorithm

for (balance of balances) {
  for (badgeIdRange of balance.badgeIds) {
    for (ownershipTimeRange of balance.ownershipTimes) {
      // User owns x(balance.amount) of (badgeIdRange) for the times (ownershipTimeRange)
    }
  }
}

Example

Consider the following balance:

{
  "amount": 1,
  "badgeIds": [{ "start": 1, "end": 10 }, { "start": 20, "end": 30 }],
  "ownershipTimes": [{ "start": 20, "end": 50 }, { "start": 100, "end": 200 }]
}

This balance expands to:

1. 1x of IDs 1-10 from times 20-50

2. 1x of IDs 1-10 from times 100-200

3. 1x of IDs 20-30 from times 20-50

4. 1x of IDs 20-30 from times 100-200

Balance Subtraction

When subtracting balances, you may need to represent the result as multiple Balance objects. For example, if we subtract the first set of balances from the example above (1x of IDs 1-10 from times 20-50), the result would be:

[
  {
    "amount": 1,
    "badgeIds": [{ "start": 1, "end": 10 }, { "start": 20, "end": 30 }],
    "ownershipTimes": [{ "start": 100, "end": 200 }]
  },
  {
    "amount": 1,
    "badgeIds": [{ "start": 20, "end": 30 }],
    "ownershipTimes": [{ "start": 20, "end": 50 }]
  }
]

Handling Duplicates

When duplicate badge IDs are specified in balances, they are combined and their amounts are added. For example:

{
  "amount": 1,
  "badgeIds": [{ "start": 1, "end": 10 }, { "start": 1, "end": 10 }],
  "ownershipTimes": [{ "start": 100, "end": 200 }]
}

This is equivalent to and will be treated as:

{
  "amount": 2,
  "badgeIds": [{ "start": 1, "end": 10 }],
  "ownershipTimes": [{ "start": 100, "end": 200 }]
}

Best Practices

1. Efficient Representation: Try to represent balances in the most compact form possible by combining overlapping ranges.

2. Careful Subtraction: When subtracting balances, ensure that you correctly split the remaining balances to accurately represent the result.

3. Avoid Duplicates: While the system handles duplicates by combining them, it's more efficient to represent balances without duplicates in the first place.

4. Time-Aware Operations: Always consider the time dimension when performing operations on balances, as ownership can vary over time.

5. Range Calculations: Familiarize yourself with range operations, as they are crucial for correctly manipulating and interpreting balances.

By understanding these concepts and following these practices, you can effectively work with the BitBadges balance system, enabling complex ownership structures and time-based badge management.