Terms of Service

These Terms govern your use of CANONIC (canonic.org and the brand surfaces we operate). The operator is Leonard Kempthorne LLC, a Florida limited liability company ("CANONIC", "we"). By signing in with GitHub you agree to these Terms and to the Privacy Policy.

1. What CANONIC is

CANONIC is a governance protocol for scientific and community knowledge. Contributors earn credits (COIN) for governed work events — community replies, task completions, curated content, annotated variants, author mints on downstream consumption. Users purchase credits to access premium features and fund bounties.

2. The credit economy

Unit. 1 COIN = 1 Credit = $1.00 USD, constant across every service and every time period. No volume discount changes the per-credit rate.

Earned vs purchased. Only earned credits (minted from governed work events) are cashable. Purchased credits remain spendable inside the platform but are not redeemable for fiat. This is a bright line — the cashout API enforces it server-side.

Processing fees. Third-party processor fees (Stripe, card networks, ACH) are paid by the user on both cash-IN and cash-OUT. On cash-IN the Stripe checkout session shows a separate "Processing fee" line so you see the total before paying. On cash-OUT your earned balance is debited the requested amount plus the Stripe Connect transfer fee equivalent; the Stripe transfer itself sends the exact requested amount to your bank. CANONIC retains $1.00 net per COIN crossing the fiat boundary and absorbs no processor fee.

3. Cashout

Cashouts are paid via Stripe Connect Express. Before your first cashout you must complete Stripe Connect onboarding (legal name, date of birth, SSN last 4, bank account). CANONIC never sees these fields — they go directly to Stripe.

Identity verification (required): cashing out is a real money transfer, so it requires completing Stripe Connect identity verification first — there is no payout to an unverified account. Caps: minimum $10 per cashout; verified accounts $1,000/day + $5,000/week (raised to $5,000/day + $25,000/week once tax reporting is on file). Platform-wide daily ceiling: $10,000.

Reserve gate: cashouts require sufficient fiat in the platform Stripe balance. If the platform balance is insufficient the cashout is rejected with an auditable governance event (COIN_PAYOUT_REJECTED) and you can retry when reserves permit.

4. Refunds and disputes

Cash-IN purchases may be refunded if requested within 30 days AND the purchased credits are still in your balance (have not been spent). Refund issues a negative COIN event that returns the balance to its pre-purchase state; if the credits were spent, a refund is not possible.

Stripe chargebacks and disputes on cash-IN follow Stripe's process. While a dispute is open the associated COIN row is frozen ("disputed"); on dispute resolution the balance is either restored (dispute won) or a compensating negative mint removes the credits (dispute lost or refunded).

5. Prohibited conduct

• Fake evidence. Every COIN mint is backed by an evidence hash; submitting falsified artifacts to trigger a mint terminates your account and reverses the mint.
• Sybil attacks (multiple GitHub accounts operated by one person to multiply mints). Detected via activity + account-age heuristics.
• Bot minting without disclosure. Automated agents that mint on your behalf must be disclosed and tagged in the ledger.
• Using CANONIC to launder funds, evade taxes, or violate any applicable law.
• Circumventing rate limits, cashout caps, or the reserve gate.

6. Account termination

You may delete your account at any time by emailing founder@canonic.org. We may suspend or terminate your account for breach of these Terms, for Stripe's KYC rejection, or in response to a valid legal order. On termination earned-but-uncashed credits may be cashed out within 30 days subject to the normal caps and reserve gate.

7. Limitation of liability

CANONIC is provided "as is." To the maximum extent permitted by law, Leonard Kempthorne LLC's aggregate liability to any user for any claim arising out of these Terms or the platform is limited to the greater of (a) the fiat value of that user's credit balance at the time of the claim, or (b) $100.

8. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the law of the State of Florida. Any dispute that cannot be resolved by good-faith negotiation will be resolved by binding arbitration in Orange County, Florida under the rules of the American Arbitration Association, except that either party may bring a claim in small-claims court.

9. Changes

We may update these Terms. Material changes bump the Effective date above and are announced on canonic.org. Your continued use after an Effective-date change constitutes acceptance.

10. Contact

Leonard Kempthorne LLC · dba CANONIC · founder@canonic.org