The Charter
When money and strangers mix, every rule is a fight someone will eventually pick. These are the hard questions, the answers we chose, and why. The rules engine enforces all of it — nobody, including the poster, gets to bend them.
Post what you want, a “done when” list, and a 7–365 day window. Seed it with at least $5.
The crowd chips in. Builders plant stakes and submit strikes. Backers can petition for time.
5 days. The haul freezes. Backers cast sealed votes weighted by √ of what they put in.
Who decides the timeline?
The poster proposes it. The backers can amend it. The rules enforce it.
When you stake a dig you choose a build window between 7 and 365 days. That’s your promise to builders about how long they have. After that, only the backers can move the date — by petition, or by choosing more time for a dig nobody has struck — and only within the extension limit. No single person can stall a dig forever or yank the rug out from under a builder mid-swing.
Who gets to vote?
Backers. Your contribution is your voice.
Only people with money in the haul vote in the assay. Lurkers don’t get to decide where other people’s money goes. Even $1 gets you in the room — the point isn’t to exclude anyone, it’s to make sure every voter has skin in the result.
Shouldn’t more money mean more votes?
Yes — but with a square root on it.
Your vote weight is √(dollars you put in). More money still means more say, but each extra vote costs more than the last. A whale can’t drown out the crowd, and the crowd can’t ignore the whale.
Same money, ten times the voice for the crowd. Breadth of support beats depth of a single wallet.
What stops a builder from buying their own win?
Builders can’t vote on digs they strike. And the square root makes vote-buying ruinous.
The moment you submit a strike, your vote weight on that dig drops to zero. Your money stays in the haul — you just don’t judge your own ore. Even a friend buying votes for you runs into the root: to outvote fifty honest backers who put in $10 each (158.1 votes), they’d need to sink about $25,000 into a pot they wouldn’t get back.
What about last-minute snipes and bandwagons?
The haul freezes and the ballots are sealed.
When the assay opens, chipping in stops — nobody can buy their way into the vote at the buzzer. Votes are sealed until the assay closes; everyone sees turnout, nobody sees the tally. You can change your vote until the end, so you can keep testing the strikes instead of guessing early.
What if none of the strikes are good enough?
Every assay has a “keep digging” option.
If “keep digging” ties or beats every strike, nobody gets paid yet: builders get 14 more days, strikes already submitted stay in, and a fresh assay follows. Builders can also see the result and know they were close — or not.
What if nobody builds it?
Backers decide: more time, or everyone gets their money back.
3 days before the deadline, if nothing has been struck, backers are asked what should happen if it stays that way: 14 more days for builders, or refunds. Answers are weighted like votes and only count if the dig is still empty at the deadline — a strike sends it to the assay as usual. If more time wins, the dig extends; if refunds win, it’s a tie, or nobody answers, the vein ran dry: every cent goes back to every backer, poster included. No fee.
How many extensions can a dig get?
2, of any kind. Then it ends.
Petitioned extensions, “keep digging” verdicts and extensions for empty digs all draw from the same pool of 2. After that a dig must resolve: a winner gets paid, or everyone gets refunded. No zombie digs holding money hostage for a year.
Can I get my money back?
Within 24 hours, yes. After that, it’s in the ground.
Every chip has a 24-hour cold-feet window while the dig is open. After that it’s committed — builders spend weeks on the strength of that haul, and they need to know it won’t evaporate the moment someone gets bored. Seeds can’t be pulled at all. If the dig runs dry, refunds are automatic and total.
What if barely anyone votes?
There’s a 30% quorum, with one grace period.
If less than 30% of the room’s vote weight shows up, the assay stays open 3 more days, once. After that, the votes cast decide it — absent backers don’t get to block the result forever. If literally nobody votes, the haul is refunded.
What about ties?
The pot is split evenly.
No coin flips with other people’s money. Two strikes that the camp values equally get paid equally.
How do petitions work?
Backers, the poster, or anyone swinging at the dig can file one. Backers decide.
One open petition per dig, 48 hours to vote. A petition passes the instant a majority of all backer weight says yes. Otherwise, at the deadline, it needs more yes than no and at least 20% turnout. Calling the assay early has a higher bar: it needs a majority of all weight, because it cuts every other builder’s time short.
Can the poster change what they asked for?
Not once other people have paid for it.
The pitch and “done when” list lock the moment anyone else chips in — they backed that ask. The poster can still pin notes to clarify. And the poster doesn’t pick the winner: their seed gives them a vote like anyone else, nothing more.
What does the winner owe the camp?
The work stays free and public.
The community paid for it, so the winning strike is released free to everyone. Builders keep the credit, the reputation, and the haul. That’s the trade.
How does OreBoard make money?
10% of successful payouts — and featured spots, if you want one.
The camp takes its cut only when a builder gets paid. Refunds are 100%, and the camp covers the card fees on top-ups. We eat when builders eat. The only other thing for sale is attention: featuring a dig (next article).
What if someone submits stolen work — or malware?
Anyone can report it, and winnings wait 7 days.
Every strike, comment and dig has a report button. A winning strike’s payout is held for 7 days so the original author, or anyone who finds something nasty in the download, has time to speak up. The keepers can pause the payout while they look, and if the win was bad, reverse it: every backer is refunded in full.
How does the money actually move?
Cards in, banks out — through Stripe.
You add funds to your wallet by card (Apple Pay and Google Pay work too), and chip in from there. Winnings land in the builder’s earnings once the hold ends — a separate balance from the wallet. Earnings go to their bank through Stripe after a one-time identity check (in Canada, the US, the UK, Switzerland and Europe’s EEA), or move into their wallet to back other digs (one way: wallet money never becomes earnings). Money you added but didn’t spend can be refunded to its card — just ask the keepers.
Can you pay to get a dig noticed?
Yes — attention, never influence.
Anyone can feature a live dig from their wallet: $10 pins it to the top of its game’s board for 7 days, and $25 puts it in the Spotlight on the main page (and its game board). Only 3 spots each, so featured stays special — when they’re full, the dialog says when the next one opens — and featured digs take turns at the front.
Featuring is the camp’s revenue. It doesn’t add to the haul, and it can’t touch the votes, the assay or the payout. If the dig closes early, is paused or taken down, or a moderator removes the feature, the unused time comes back to whoever paid. Keepers sometimes add a free staff pick, but only into spots nobody has paid for.
Now go ask for something.
Start a dig