If the first "payload" is a load of propellant intended for transfer, does that count as one object?
If the payload is a stack of Starlinks, does that count as several objects or one?

@Mqrius @ZacharyAustin
Surely "the first object" is one Starlink not several of them? It has to be an object right? Perhaps it could be argued that it depends on deployment method? With Falcon style deployment it might be whole stack as it is one deployment event though that still seems like deploying several objects to me. Anyway if as expected it is through pez dispenser then surely it has to be one starlink (two at most if released at exactly the same time?)

Fuel hmm: Is liquid an object? I think I would be inclined to say yes. (scientifically, yes; colloquially, sometimes, here yes.) Is that more than one object if the flow stops and restarts? We may not get info on how many times the flow stops and starts so I am inclined to say we may well have to treat it as one object. It is rather unspecified whether it is one object before deployment, during deployment or after deployment so assume it is contiguous at some point?

Perhaps more ambiguous:
I am taking "on starship' in title to mean it must be some object deployed 'from Starship' so it cannot be the whole Starship as a test object nor can it be equipment that stays on Starship. I don't really see a meaningful alternative interpretation which doesn't result in an answer that should be clear when the question was created e.g. mass of starship (>170t) or the silly 0 because things are weightless in orbit. But maybe there are alternative possible views?

Re internal fuel transfer demo that was done. To me this seems a test of the process rather than an object successfully delivered. It wasn't delivered to orbit so it shouldn't count on that grounds. However maybe this helps support idea it has to be deployed from Starship?

@ChristopherRandles I think the actual question is: What is this market trying to be about? Is it actually about the proven payload capacity of the first operational Starship? Cos then both fuel and a stack of starlinks would count.
But maybe the market is literally trying to be about the first physical object? (Why would we be interested in that other than historical curiosity?)

I find the first question the most interesting ("What will be the shown payload capacity of the first operational Starship, aka the first Starship used directly for a commercial purpose?") but I'm not sure what Zachary had in mind. One extra benefit of my question is that it's a lot less ambiguous (quite clearly none of the test flights count, for example).

@Mqrius While I agree with your comment about 'proven payload capacity' being more interesting, it doesn't seem to be how the question is written. If that was the aim surely the question would be written to indicate it is 'total mass of all payload objects on a single launch' or maybe 'total mass deployed'.

So I am not seeing how it can be interpreted as you prefer. I am not sure it is less ambiguous to do so. e.g. Why does it have to be "first operational Starship" why not a mass simulator on a test flight? What if there is a fuel dump? Does that mass count?

@ChristopherRandles I guess if @ZacharyAustin would reply then we would have clarity but he hasn't replied to my question from a year ago... As the market is right now, I'm not betting on it cos it's too ambiguous.

I guess it will be a Starlink 2.0 satellite which weighs "about one and a quarter tons" according to Elon: https://youtu.be/XP5k3ZzPf_0?t=590