§ 01The instrument
The Black Hole Index™ is an open scientific instrument for measuring structural lock-in in digital platforms. It produces a single dimensionless number per platform — the ratio of capture pressure over escape capacity, evaluated across eleven measurable parameters.
The instrument is intentionally minimal. It does not rank value, ethics, regulation, or pricing. It reports the structural fact and leaves interpretation to the reader.
BHI draws on 70 years of economics: CES production functions from Solow (1956), switching cost theory from Farrell and Klemperer (2007), network effects from Katz and Shapiro (1985), increasing returns from Arthur (1989), and status quo bias from Samuelson and Zeckhauser (1988). The combination — a single dimensionless ratio that separates tools from traps — is the contribution.
§ 02The author
Ivan Savich — founding author and maintainer of the BHI. Based in Ukraine. Started as an underground electrician in a Donetsk coal mine, earned a Master's in Political Science, moved into banking and reached senior management (80-person team, 9 years in finance). Left everything in 2014 when war came. Started over. Learned to build software from zero — BHI, a 14-language news platform, quantitative trading systems.
§ 03Contact and links
§ 04Governance principles
- Reproducibility. Every score is backed by cited evidence. Methodology is open under CC BY 4.0.
- Stability before novelty. The aggregation function is versioned. Changes require documentation and historical score reissuance.
- No paid placement. No platform pays to be in, out, or higher in the index. Universe constructed by published criteria.
Public audit log
§ 05Advisory board
The BHI advisory board is currently being formed. Prospective members will review quarterly releases, validate methodology changes, and provide peer review.
If you work in industrial organisation, competition policy, quantitative finance, or econometric measurement: ivan.savich@blackholeindex.com
§ 06How to engage
- Read. Every release ships with methodology, validation, and the working paper. → Paper
- Probe. The Observatory is a live calculator; score any platform in your browser. → Observatory
- Collaborate. Inter-rater reliability study seeking independent evaluators (ICC target > 0.75). → Contact
- A structural lock-in measurement instrument
- A dimensionless ratio (like Reynolds or Sharpe)
- Applicable to AI, finance, crypto, SaaS
- Open methodology, open formula
- A product quality score
- A user satisfaction metric
- A financial recommendation
- A prediction of price movements