The Your 99 Agreement

Preamble

This agreement governs the relationship between a Builder (the person or team who creates and maintains a product) and its Users (the people who use the product). It establishes a new ownership model: 99% user ownership, 1% builder ownership.

Every product in the Your 99 ecosystem operates under this agreement. It is the same for every product. It is public, readable, and enforceable.

Article 1 — Ownership Structure

1.1 The Builder permanently retains 1% of the product’s economic rights and governance weight.

1.2 Users collectively hold 99% of the product’s economic rights and governance weight, distributed as individual Living Stake proportional to each user’s verified contribution.

1.3 Ownership cannot be purchased. Stake is earned exclusively through usage and contribution as defined in the product’s Contribution Map (Article 3).

1.4 Ownership cannot be sold, traded, or transferred between users. Stake represents a relationship with the product, not a financial instrument.

Article 2 — Economic Rights

2.1 Revenue distribution. The product’s revenue is allocated as follows:

2.2 Distributable profit is defined as: total revenue minus verified operating costs minus approved builder compensation.

2.3 Distributions and the Your 99 Credit System. Profit distribution is calculated monthly and issued as Your 99 Credits.

• Credits can be used to pay for any subscription, service, or feature across the entire Your 99 ecosystem.
• Fee-free withdrawal is available when a user’s balance reaches $100 USD — Your 99 absorbs transaction costs. Subject to standard identity verification (KYC).
• Anytime withdrawal is available at any balance. The user pays the transaction/processing fee, shown transparently before confirming. We want you to be able to screenshot your first payment — even if it’s $3. That moment matters more than efficiency.
• Distribution amounts and calculations are public and auditable by any user with stake.

2.4 The Central Treasury and Verified Costs. To prevent accounting manipulation, builders do not collect revenue directly. Your 99 operates as the central financial orchestrator, using established payment infrastructure to process all ecosystem transactions. Your 99 collects subscription revenue and pays verified infrastructure providers (hosting, APIs, services) directly. Builders cannot create arbitrary operating costs. The distributable profit pool is calculated before any builder payment.

2.5 Builder Fair Compensation. Builders need to make a living. The 1% permanent stake is ownership — Fair Compensation is livelihood.

• When launching a product, the builder proposes a compensation amount — what they need to work on the product full-time. This amount varies: a builder in Prague needs different compensation than one in San Francisco.
• Fair Compensation is approved by stake-weighted user vote, reviewed annually. Users see the builder’s proposal, evaluate their work, and decide what is fair.
• Fair Compensation is treated as an operating cost — it is deducted before the distributable profit pool is calculated. It does not change the 99/1 ownership split. The 99/1 number stays sacred.
• For team products, Fair Compensation covers the entire team. The builder proposes, users approve.
• Fair Compensation is transparent — every user can see what the builder earns and why.
• Fair Compensation acts as a cap, not a guarantee. If monthly revenue (after infrastructure costs) is lower than the approved Fair Compensation, the builder receives 100% of the available funds, but the shortfall does not accrue as debt. We share the upside; we share the reality.
• Once approved, Fair Compensation is locked for 12 months. It cannot be reduced by user vote mid-cycle. This ensures the builder has the security to focus on the product rather than playing politics.
• As the product grows, the builder’s 1% becomes increasingly meaningful. Users may adjust Fair Compensation downward as 1% alone becomes sufficient — or maintain it if the builder’s contribution warrants it. This is governance, not formula.

Article 3 — Living Stake

3.1 Every product publishes a Contribution Map — a public document defining exactly what earns stake and at what rate. The Contribution Map is specific to each product because contribution means different things for different products.

3.2 Contributions that earn stake include but are not limited to:

• Active usage (the base layer — using the product earns stake)
• Payment (paying users earn stake at a higher rate than free users)
• Feedback that improves the product (bug reports, feature suggestions, testing)
• Referrals who become active users
• Content creation that adds value to the product
• Community moderation and support
• Any other contribution defined in the product’s Contribution Map

3.3 Stake decays. Inactive stake diminishes over a 24-month half-life. If a user stops all engagement with a product, their stake reduces by 50% every 24 months. Stake never reaches zero — a long-term contributor always retains a residual share — but active users always hold more than dormant ones.

3.4 New user probation. New accounts earn stake at 50% rate for the first 90 days. This is invisible to genuine users (they don’t notice the reduced rate because they’re focused on using the product) but makes automated gaming economically unviable.

3.5 The Contribution Map is governed by the users. Changes to the Contribution Map require a stake-weighted vote with a 60% approval threshold.

3.6 Stake balances, accrual rates, and decay calculations are visible to each user for their own account. Aggregate stake distribution is public.

Article 4 — Governance

4.1 Users with stake have voice — the right to participate in decisions that affect the product. Voice is weighted by stake. The people who contribute most have the most influence.

4.2 Decisions subject to user governance:

• Changes to the Contribution Map
• Changes to operating cost structure
• Approval of builder Fair Compensation
• Major product direction changes (pivots, new features that fundamentally alter the product)
• Admission to or departure from a Product Family
• Any proposed change to this Agreement for this product

4.3 Governance decisions require a proposal → discussion → vote process.

• Any user with stake above the product’s minimum threshold may submit a proposal.
• Discussion period: minimum 7 days.
• Voting period: minimum 7 days.
• Quorum: A vote is valid only if holders representing at least 15% of total active stake participate. If quorum is not met, the proposal may be resubmitted after 30 days.
• Standard decisions: 50%+ stake-weighted approval.
• Constitutional decisions (changes to this Agreement, sale/transfer of product): 75%+ stake-weighted approval.

4.4 The Builder retains operational authority for day-to-day decisions: bug fixes, minor features, design changes, infrastructure choices, team management, and product development priorities. Governance applies to structural and economic decisions, not every commit.

4.5 Users may delegate their governance vote to another user with stake (proxy voting). Delegation is revocable at any time. This ensures effective participation without requiring every user to evaluate every proposal.

4.6 When a dispute arises over whether a decision is operational (Builder authority) or structural (governance authority), either party may request ecosystem-level arbitration — a review by an independent panel of builders and high-stake users from other Your 99 products, appointed through ecosystem governance.

4.7 The Builder cannot unilaterally:

• Change the ownership split
• Sell or transfer the product
• Change the revenue distribution model
• Shut down the product without 90-day notice and a governance vote on alternatives

Article 5 — Protection

5.1 The product cannot be sold to any entity — corporation, investor, or individual — without a governance vote achieving 75%+ stake-weighted approval.

5.2 The product cannot be converted to an advertising-based model without governance approval.

5.3 User data belongs to users. The product may use data to provide and improve the service. Data cannot be sold to third parties. Users may export their data at any time. Users may delete their data at any time (stake earned from that data is retained).

5.4 If the Builder abandons the product (no updates, no maintenance for 180+ days without notice), governance authority transfers fully to the user base. Users may appoint a new builder or build team through governance vote. The original builder retains their 1% economic stake but loses operational authority.

5.5 The Your 99 Agreement for any product is permanent and irrevocable in its core principles (99% user ownership, earned stake, no purchased ownership). Implementation details may be amended through constitutional governance vote (75%+).

Article 6 — The Universal Pool

6.1 Every Your 99 product contributes 10% of distributable profit to the Your 99 Universal Pool.

6.2 The Universal Pool is distributed to all Your 99 members proportional to their total stake across all products.

6.3 The Universal Pool funds:

• Ecosystem-wide profit distribution to all members
• Mission products (products that serve society but generate no direct revenue)
• Your 99 infrastructure and platform operations
• Emergency support for products in crisis (decided by ecosystem-wide governance)

6.4 Universal Pool allocation is governed by ecosystem-wide vote (all Your 99 members, stake-weighted across all products).

6.5 The Your 99 platform’s own operational costs are subject to the same transparency and governance requirements as any product in the ecosystem. Platform costs are published monthly, auditable by any member, and challengeable through ecosystem-wide governance.

Article 7 — Product Families

7.1 Products may voluntarily form Families — groups of related products that share an additional stake pool.

7.2 Family products contribute an additional 5% of distributable profit to a Family Pool, shared among all users of all products in the Family.

7.3 Family membership requires mutual agreement between all existing Family members and the joining product, via governance vote.

7.4 Families are voluntary. Products may exist independently without belonging to any Family.

7.5 Distribution for a Family member product:

Article 8 — Builder Rights and Responsibilities

8.1 The Builder’s 1% is permanent, non-dilutable, and non-revocable as long as the product exists.

8.2 The Builder has the right to make operational decisions, set product direction within governance constraints, and assemble and manage a build team.

8.3 The Builder has the responsibility to: maintain the product in working condition, publish transparent financials monthly, respond to governance proposals, and operate within this Agreement.

8.4 If the Builder wishes to step down, they may transfer operational authority (but not their 1% economic stake) to a successor approved by governance vote.

8.5 For team products: the Builder is the Lead Builder. Team members are compensated from the Fair Compensation allocation (Article 2.5). Team composition is the Lead Builder’s operational decision.

Article 9 — Joining and Leaving

9.1 Any person may use a Your 99 product and begin earning stake by accepting this Agreement.

9.2 Users may leave at any time. Upon leaving, their stake enters the standard decay cycle (Article 3.3). They may return and resume stake accrual at any time.

9.3 Users who violate the product’s community standards may have their active stake accrual suspended by Builder decision, appealable through governance.

9.4 Builders may launch a Your 99 product by adopting this Agreement, publishing a Contribution Map, and registering on the Your 99 platform.

Article 10 — Amendments

10.1 This Agreement version (1.0) establishes the foundational principles. Individual product implementations may add clauses specific to their context, provided they do not contradict any article of this Agreement.

10.2 The core principles — 99% user ownership, earned-not-purchased stake, living stake with decay, builder 1%, user governance, sale protection — are permanent and non-amendable. They are the constitution. Everything else is legislation and can evolve.

10.3 The Your 99 ecosystem may publish updated versions of this Agreement. Existing products are not required to adopt new versions unless their user governance votes to do so.

This Agreement is public domain. It belongs to everyone. Copy it, adapt it, build on it. The only requirement: honor the 99%.