Social Finance Terms

These terms cover the foundation of our services by defining the various components of a general Social Finance Process and how they are related. Your agreement with us to use those components is largely described here.

Last updated August 10th, 2025

Social Finance Process

Social Finance is an arrangement between multiple users who provide funds ("Contributors") to make a payment to another user, person, or entity or combinations thereof ("Recipient", "Creator", "Value Creator"). A user can be both a Contributor and a Creator at various times. The roles are only exclusive when a Contributor might direct payments to themselves as a Creator.

PrizeForge has multiple, evolving, specific forms of Social Finance. You are advised to read these terms and any supplemental terms that you will opt into before Committing funds to any Funding or Social Decision Process, explained below. These general Social Finance terms can be referred to from the more specific terms of any Funding or Social Decision Process and serve as a fallback for those terms.

Funding Process

Contributors coordinate their payment through a Funding Process that ensures amounts, proportions, and timing of cooperation, combining the coordinated payments to constitute a comprised set of payments to Creators ("Funding Process").

In order to execute the cooperation on behalf of all Contributors, the Funding Process is given control over funds that are entered ("Enrolled") into its terms. The Funding Process may determine that proportions, amounts, or timing of cooperation is insufficient to meet the rules of its operation and return all or part of the Enrolled Funds to the control of the Contributors.

The terms of each Funding Process will be indicated prominently before a Contributor enters into such process and agreement with consent to the terms of that Funding Process will be explicitly collected.

Version

Funding and Social Finance processes have version numbers (i.e. 1.0.0) that are posted in the title of each of their terms. Each version indicates a specific set of intended behaviors. The software implementing the behaviors may change at any time without notice and without a change of versions. Changes to intended behaviors will update the version. Opting into these terms covers this version and all future versions.

The version number indicates the degree of similarity of behaviors. It is however not a semantic version and does not imply compatibility of any APIs. The leading digit indicates the broad data model. The middle digit is incremented to add or remove behaviors. The trailing digit is used to indicate refinement of existing behaviors.

Streams

Streams advertise a specific Purpose of Funds in their description. This purpose is summarized in their name. The purpose of streams is to raise funds with a narrow focus. Streams may be composed, whereby a more general stream directs funds into a more specific stream.

Streams are comprised by Enrollments, a Funding Process, and a Decision Process. Enrollments are matched by the Funding Process into committed funds and then the disbursement of those funds is controlled by the Decision Process.

Enrollment of Funds

Contributors only bind funds to be later formed into a payment to a Value Creator through a Funding Process. These bound funds constitute an Enrollment ("Enrollment", "Enrolled Funds"). Funds that are not enrolled ("Available") may be Enrolled into a Funding Process. Once funds become part of an Enrollment, their fate is determined by the Funding Process and any follow-on Social Decision Process.

Because each Funding Process usually solicits further cooperation with other Contributors, once funds are bound to a Funding Process, control of those funds cannot be returned to you except through the operation of that Funding Process. You agree that this protects the cooperative value proposition and interests of You and the other Contributors that You intentionally or implicitly solicited cooperation from.

Whenever a Funding Process or follow-on Social Decision Process fails to satisfy its conditions, it may cancel Enrollment, returning control of those funds to the Contributor, making them Available again.

Commitment of Funds

When the conditions of a Funding Process are met, Enrolled Funds become bound to pay out to some Creator ("Committed", "Commitment", "Committed Funds"). Only in unusual circumstances determined at our discretion will Committed Funds be returned to a Contributor's Available balance. Committed Funds will be subject to the control of any Social Decision process.

Recurring Enrollment & Cancellation

PrizeForge is a recurring service. Enrollments are recurring and will be charged according to the period of a Funding Process, which is always explicitly explained in its terms.

Commitments are non-reversible and will always Disburse at the conclusion of the Funding and Social Decision Processes they are bound to, but Cancellation or Reduction will cause them not to renew.

You agree that this protects the value proposition of your cooperation with other users and prevents users from signaling a willingness to cooperate while intending only to solicit your Contribution without their intent to cooperate.

Cancellation of Enrollments will preferentially return Enrolled Funds to the Available Balance if that Funding Process has not Committed them or used them to solicit further Enrollments from other users. Cancellation will prevent future Enrollment of any further funds. Balances made Available resulting from cancellation are subject to terms of Refunds.

Purpose and Specialization

Every Funding Process is comprised with at least some basic intent or category of value creation on which it may be spent ("Purpose"). The Commitments created by a Funding Process begin with this most generic Purpose. A follow-on Social Decision Process may add further specificity to the Purpose ("Specialization"). Specialization happens over a period of time ("Specialization Period").

Specialization can proceed from adding additional Purpose all the way to designating a specific Value Creator to receive funds. When Specialization goes so far as to specify a Value Creator or automatic means of selecting an eligible Value Creator, those funds can be eligible for Disbursement at the end of the Specialization Period.

Specialization may be modified or changed by a Social Decision Process. However, no Social Decision Process can remove the original Purpose. In order to limit a loss of Specialization, you agree to modify the Purpose of your Commitments for the next eligible Disbursement.

Whenever a Social Decision or Funding Process allows, a Contributor may directly update the Purpose of Commitments in ways that further Specialize them as long as it cannot result in other Contributors or Value Creators having been entrained into cooperation that will no longer happen.

Disbursement

Once the period of Specialization is ends, any Specializations which point to specific Value Creators or have some process to be divided among some non-empty set of eligible Value Creators will be made Available to their accounts ("Disbursement").

Decisions

Whenever you create, cancel, or modify the Specialization of Commitments, this constitutes a Decision. In cases of transitive Delegation, the decision to Delegate itself may be considered a Decision. Review of Disbursements is a Decision. Review and Override of any Decision is a Decision. Essentially any change of the Specialization or Delegation State may be considered a Decision eligible to be performed by a Delegate and then subject to Review and Override.

Social Decision Process

PrizeForge implements social decision behaviors where the Decisions of many Contributors are combined by our software rules into Decisions that are binding across groups of users ("Social Decision Process"). Any Decisions can be made as part of a Social Decision Process.

Delegation

You may delegate part or all of your authority to make Decisions to the discretion of another Contributor ("Delegate") who will make Decisions on your behalf. Delegation respects the rules of Specialization, changing or updating Specialization but not changing the Purpose of funds. No Delegate ever controls the initial creation of an enrollment.

Delegation serves the purpose of ensuring that Decisions can be made on your behalf even when you are not actively monitoring a Social Decision Process or not participating in every single Specialization controlled by that Social Decision Process. By selecting Delegates, you maintain more robust representation as if you are involved everywhere without the requirement to actually be involved at all.

Social Delegation

Whenever a Social Decision Process allows a Contributor to select multiple Delegates or allows Delegates to transitively select further indirect Delegates, certain contradictions may arise that need resolution. We can select appropriate Contributors for you, based on your selection of Delegates ("Delegation Decision"), to serve as fallback Delegates and resolve these contradictions by making and soliciting further Delegation Decisions from You and from your Delegates. These fallbacks may be a result of Decisions made by many Contributors (A Social Decision Process). The resulting behavior is called "Social Delegation", which includes "Transitive Delegation".

Review and Override

Delegates do not always act in the best interests of those they represent (a well-known principle-agent problem). In order to preserve the integrity of Delegation and legitimacy of the results of Social Decision Processes implemented by PrizeForge, we present Decisions made by Delegates for Review. Your Delegates may perform Review of Decisions made by other Delegates. The results of Review can change the transitive state of Social Delegation. Decisions may result in alternative Decisions ("Override"), changing the Purpose of Enrolled funds and Specification of Commitments.

Funding Your Account

PrizeForge can require that funds are available in your account prior to making any Enrollment ("Pre-Fund") or only after Enrollments are made ("Post-Fund"). Which kind of funding is used is defined by the specific Funding Process.

Available Funds

When an account has been Pre-Funded but those funds are not yet in the control of a Funding Process or have been returned from control of a Funding Process, they are Available.

Refunds

You may request refund. Only funds that are currently Available or funds that later become Available because of the reversion of an Enrollment may be refunded. If we have determined that your Available funds are not subject to any ongoing dispute or business process, we will process the refund as soon as possible, minus any fees incurred when transferring those funds onto or off of PrizeForge.

Composition

Enrollments, Commitments, the Funding Processes that create them, and the Social Decision Processes that Specialize and Disburse them may be partially or totally compatible in Composition or superposition. In such cases, the same Enrollments and Commitments may be participating in several simultaneous Funding and Social Decision Processes.

Composition can be mutual or directed. When the relationship is directed or one-way, one process ("Comprising Process") that directs into the other ("Comprised Process"). Enrollments from the comprising process are subject to both the terms of the comprising process and the process it comprises part of. The comprised process is not subject to the terms of its comprising processes. With mutual composition, both processes Comprise each other and are subject to each other's terms.

When you Enroll in a Process that comprises another, you agree to abide the terms of any process a process you Enroll in is comprising. Your Enrollment is only subject to the terms of the process you enrolled in and any process that it is comprising.

If the Enrollments or Commitments you made are dependent on a comprising Funding or Social Decision Process and that process fails to achieve sufficient cooperation to continue effectuating its Commitments, your Commitment may also be reverted as if other Contributors of your same Funding or Social decision process Canceled or Reduced their Commitment.

Non-Binding Payment

Disbursements voluntarily directed toward the voluntary creation of value ("Non-Binding ") are morally equivalent to tipping a busker. The busker may stop playing at any time. The listener is not required to tip before or after the busker plays. Buskers may feel encouraged to receive further tips and may elect to play where they expect tips to occur more frequently and may more frequently perform works that are more applauded or generously tipped. Nonetheless, even when there are clear patterns of behavior and implicitly or explicitly shared expectations, all participation by all parties remains voluntary and non-binding at all times.

No matter how clearly a Commitment or Specialization instruction indicates a specific Value Creator is likely to receive a specific payment from specific Contributors for the purpose of creating specific value, the relationship remains voluntary, and non-binding. Value Creators agree that they are not entitled to receive the Funds from any Commitment or Specialization. Contributors agree that they are not entitled to receive the benefits of any value created by the Creator or for the Creator to have created any value at all before or after Disbursement.

Because PrizeForge is a continuous platform, payments appreciating recent value creation will likely coincide with ongoing value creation. Contributors make payments to Value Creators in mere appreciation for value those Creators have created. The payments encourage but do not require any value or specific value to be created. Value Creators are more likely but not required to create value which they are encouraged to create. The payments are unconditional and do not in any way bind the users to each other or the Value Creator to the Contributors. There is no explicit or implied contract for services or employment whatsoever.

Any statements by the Contributors that they intend to continue funding the creation of value by the Creator and any statements by the Value Creator that they intend to create specific value or benefit for the Creators are purely speculative and remain non-binding. Contributors and Value Creators agree not to attempt to bind each other into any formal or informal agreement or to assert that each other have become bound into such agreement.

Contributors agree that their Commitments and statements about those Commitments are intended to communicate about what kinds of value they may appreciate, without agreeing to make any payment should such value be created by any Creator.

Value Creators agree that their creation of value and statements about their ongoing value creation are intended to communicate to Contributors about how the value they intend to create aligns with the creation of value that the Contributors intend to encourage.

Non-Deliverability

Whenever we are unable or it is unlawful to Disburse Commitments to the designated or intended recipients for whatever reason, we reserve the right to force cancellation of Commitments and or re-distribute funds according to our interpretation of the rules of Composition, Social Delegation, Specialization, Purpose, or other custom remedies to Disburse Commitments to other eligible and deliverable Value Creators.

Clawback

In the event that we find an inconsistency which we deem to be an error, you agree that we have the right to collect future Disbursements or to move remaining Available funds in your account so as to make whole all or as many other Contributors and Value Creators as possible in order to protect the integrity of the service for you and all other users. You agree that we may continue to do this as long as necessary.

Non-Liability of Contributors and Creators

You agree not to hold any Contributors or Creators liable for any damages you incur as a result of cooperating or communicating with other Contributors or Creators while participating in any Funding or Social Decision Process. You agree that your best remedy is to change your Specialization, Delegation, Purpose, or the value you choose to create in order to avoid Contributors and Creators you believe act counter to your interests.

You Agree to Our Interpretation

There may be behaviors encoded within our software that are supplementary to a Social Decision or Funding Process and are not visible to you. We may make mistakes in our encoding of the terms of any process into the software that implements it. The software may be more explicit and clear for us to interpret than the public terms are for you. You agree that our interpretation of how our software should have or was intended to operate in order to fulfill the terms of any Funding or Social Decision Process and you agree that our interpretation is correct.

We reserve the right not to disclose any behaviors that implement edge cases, initialization procedures, migration, update, restart, suspense, debugging, monitoring, anti-fraud, honeypots, watermarks or other hidden behaviors which enable us to protect the integrity of PrizeForge, its sensitive trade secret, and our processes of active monitoring. We reserve the right to unilaterally interpret how visible behaviors are affected by these invisible behaviors without any responsibility to disclose, describe, or mention invisible behaviors.

You agree that you are responsible for any misunderstanding of what was supposed to happen and that we are not liable for any damages you incur as a result of your misunderstanding.

You Agree to Our Corrections

Regardless of what is stated in the terms of a Funding or Social Decision Process, we reserve the right to cancel Commitments, to Specialize, to cancel Specialization, to Disburse, to cancel Disbursement, to change Decisions of Social Decision Processes, to change Delegation of Social Delegation Processes, or to otherwise modify any states of any any Funding or Social Decision Process however we see fit for whatever reason we deem suitable and you agree that the results of these actions are correct.

You agree that the result of any changes we make, to execute our interpretation of what should have happened in intended operation or in the remedy of some unforeseen situation for which we have needed to make changes, is correct. You agree that we can make further changes and that our further changes remain correct, that our interpretation and the output states we create in order to effectuate that interpretation are correct at all times.

You agree that you are not entitled to any Non-Binding Disbursement that we cancel or otherwise modify and that you were not entitled to such Non-Binding Disbursement to begin with.

Remediation

If you disagree with our interpretation or corrections, you must cease use of PrizeForge immediately and request a refund of any Available funds. You agree that the best remedy to any such dispute arising from your differences with our interpretation or corrections is simply to stop participating in our processes and terminate your account.

Payment Terms

Partners who process our payments ("Payment Partners") such as Stripe have their own terms. You are advised to read their terms to understand how your account balances, payments, refunds, and any other movement of funds through, into, and off of PrizeForge may be affected by their terms independently of ours.

Fees

Whenever we make payments or refunds, any incidental fees incurred by our Payment Partners or others will be born by the recipient of that payment. These fees may be deducted from our maximum liability.

Taxes

Value Creators are responsible for any required income reporting and the payment of all taxes they owe to any tax collection agency. Our Payment Partners will typically communicate various information about your income and liabilities or responsibility for reporting to You and to relevant tax collection agencies. It is Your responsibility to know of and to pay these tax liabilities. You agree not to hold us or our Payment Partners liable for damages caused by your failure to pay your tax liabilities and you must indemnify us and our Payment Partners against any such failure for any of Your tax liability to be paid.

Supplemental

These terms are in addition to the General Terms. They will usually act in combination with other terms, which you will explicitly opt into when using features covered by those terms.

Contact

If you have any questions, you may contact us at contact@prizeforge.com. We will keep these terms updated to reflect any needs for clarifications we find.