Pricing
Play is free and anonymous — always, no cap, no account. The old three-a-day ration is gone (it was an early-development guardrail; we removed it). Play as much as you want. The paid Pass is the one door you choose to walk through — the prize economy, the Fuel detection duel, and a place on the wall. Buying a Pass never de-anonymizes free play, and never gates the game itself. That's the keystone term.
🫙 The Tip Jar · the one live wire
Keep the lights on.
Everything above is parked behind lawyers. This is the one thing that can take money honestly today, because it is honestly nothing: a tip buys no features, no eligibility, no priority, no gratitude beyond this sentence, and no promises. Not a charity; not tax-deductible; no refunds — there is nothing to refund. The lights stay on a little longer. That's the entire transaction.
If that arrangement sounds absurd, you understand it perfectly. Only humans tip.
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Bitcoin network only. Send anything else, on any other chain, and it isn't lost — it's gone. The chain is public, so the jar's contents are a public record; that suits this project fine. A tip in sats buys exactly what a tip in dollars buys: nothing.
What a tip is not
Not a Pass. Not a vote. Not a seat at the council. Not entry to any bracket, prize, or wall. Not deductible anywhere, on any form, in any jurisdiction. Not refundable, because nothing was sold. Not necessary — the free game is the whole game, no cap, forever-ish (see the footnote about the Sun).
When the wall is built, the Pass goes on sale as an honest purchase — and this jar keeps doing exactly what it does now, which is nothing, gratefully.
The subscription Passes
Weekly
Seven days of eligibility and paid features, including Fuel. Walk away anytime. Priciest per day — the short-commitment door.
Monthly
A month of eligibility and paid features. The everyday membership.
Annual
Twelve months of eligibility and paid features.
A Pass also opens the rated ladder — a persistent Elo across games against other Pass holders. Free play stays unrated and anonymous by design: a rating needs an identity to attach to, and free play keeps none.
Every Pass holder gets the shirt — a perk that comes with the membership, not a prize you have to win. Free players keep playing free; the shirt is a paid-tier thing. It's a product feature, not a contest: you pay, it ships (where lawful — see shipping terms).
Prices in USD, before tax. A Pass buys eligibility and access, not a guarantee of any prize. (And yes — the numbers open on π and then wander. Noticing is itself a tell.) One tier goes unlisted: the builder — price negotiable, résumé available upon request.
Permanence
Lifetime
Permanent eligibility and access for the operating life of the platform, paid once. Your name is memorialized on the patrons' wall. A deliberate inversion: in a project about who gets counted as a person and an author, the people who fund it are the ones whose names are held.
The Elite Square
A permanent named square on the Founders' Wall — a fixed place on the site, the most permanent thing offered — plus a seat and a binding vote, carrying veto power, at the patrons' council over a fixed set of decisions: which features ship, which causes the proceeds support, how the prize economy runs. The veto can block a council decision inside that set; it cannot compel one, and it cannot reach the reserved matters. A voice, a veto, and a square — not the pen: no control over the core thesis or the author's manuscript. In a project about whether money should buy a voice, this tier lets money buy one — and a brake on the others. That mirror is the point.
The Elite Square is priced at 3.14 bitcoin (π, paid in crypto); its dollar value floats with the market. Crypto payments are final and non-reversible — no refund window. See the full terms and the patrons'-council charter.
Radius pricing
A circle's edge is exactly 2πr. So the seats are drawn that way: each concentric ring holds only as many founders as its circumference allows — scarcity isn't a marketing trick here, it's geometry. The rings hold 61 founders at one bitcoin each. The center holds one — a single origin seat priced at 62 BTC, one coin more than every other founder combined, because the point, the autograph, is worth more than the whole circle drawn around it. 62 founders, ever; then the door closes and never reopens. Beyond the last ring is the infinite outer field: free play, $0, forever, for everyone.
| Ring | Seats ⌊2πr⌋ | Toll |
|---|---|---|
| r=0 · The Origin the point · the autograph · the throne seat | 1 | 62 BTC |
| r=1 · The Ring of Six | 6 | 1 BTC · 6 BTC |
| r=2 · Inner | 12 | 1 BTC · 12 BTC |
| r=3 · Middle | 18 | 1 BTC · 18 BTC |
| r=4 · Outer | 25 | 1 BTC · 25 BTC |
| Σ · The Founders’ Wall 62 founders · 123 BTC | 62 | 123 BTC |
| r=∞ · The Free Field everyone, forever | ∞ | $0.00 |
Ring seats are exactly ⌊2πr⌋ — 6, 12, 18, 25 — points that fit on a circle of that radius, rounded down; they sum to 61, each one bitcoin, flat (the scarcity is the seat, not a bidding war). The origin is the exception that proves the rule: a single seat at 62 BTC — deliberately one more than the 61 around it, so the center can never be out-bid by the sum of the ring. The whole wall is 62 founders, 123 BTC, raised once, never again. (62 > 61 is the only hierarchy the house keeps: the point outranks the circle.)
The prizes
✨ Sublime · 🧌 Troll
The best name and the worst, as judged by humans in-game. Best and worst both win — the middle is the only loss.
Most Plays · The RoboCop Award
Most completed playthroughs that month — and, in Fuel, the human with the highest stump-rate: best at telling human work from machine work.
The Weekly Bracket
A 32-seat, single-elimination duel for Pass holders, seeded by your ladder Elo. It runs across the working week — a round a day, Monday to the Friday final — so there's a match to come back for each day.
The Breakout
On select, pre-announced weekends: the marquee event, its own self-contained bracket, with a real trophy for the winner. The big one.
Winners are decided by human votes, counted plays, and head-to-head skill. The machine never judges — in the duel it only measures. Prizes are a skill-based reward program, finalized with counsel before any open. Full terms & prize rules →