POE captures your movement on a shared 3D canvas and records it permanently on Polygon and Arweave. Standard Proof is free — we cover gas and storage. Perpetual Proof costs $2–$20 and mints an NFT immediately. The native token Time26 (total supply: 48,420,000) rewards time spent drawing, distributed at one token per second of the year.
1. The Philosophy: Why We Built This
The Problem with Digital Memory
History remembers kings. It remembers conquerors. Everyone else disappears.
That's not a new pattern — but the internet made it worse. A server goes down. A platform shuts off. A subscription lapses. Thousands of hours of online presence, gone in an afternoon. You were here. You made things. But when the infrastructure stops, the record resets to zero.
Proof of Existence (POE) is our answer to that. Not through rhetoric — through cryptographic permanence. Your presence, your time, your movement: recorded on an immutable ledger, stored on Arweave, readable by anyone centuries from now.
We're not sure "rebellion" is the right word for what we're building. It's more like: we got tired of building things on borrowed infrastructure. So we built something that doesn't need to ask permission to survive.
A Collective Record
The old epics were written by one person, for one person's legacy. That's not what this is.
Every participant writes a verse. Together they form something none of us could produce alone:
- You are the author. Your movement generates the data.
- The blockchain is the record. Nothing gets overwritten.
- Arweave is the archive. Pay once, store for 200+ years.
2. How It Works
POE captures "Proof of Life" — a permanent record of your interaction with a shared canvas.
Step 1: Connect
Connect your wallet. This becomes your unique identifier on the canvas. We support social login (Google, X, Facebook, Apple, Line) and external wallets like MetaMask — no crypto experience required.
Step 2: Enter the Canvas
You enter an infinite dark 3D space: the Global Canvas. Time is the primary dimension here, not pixels.
Step 3: Draw Your Trail
Move your cursor. The system records:
- Position vectors
(x, y, z)with millisecond timestamps(t) - Every pause, burst of speed, and circle
- These get compressed into a unique "Light Trail" — your data, your shape
Every hesitation is part of the record. That's intentional.
Step 4: Choose Your Proof Type
Standard Proof — Free
Your trail is temporarily stored on our servers, then batched with others into a Merkle Tree and submitted on-chain at UTC 00:00 each day. The protocol covers all gas and Arweave storage costs. You earn Time26 tokens as proof of your participation.
Perpetual Proof — Paid
Your trail is written to Arweave immediately and verified by the Polygon smart contract in real time. You receive an NFT, an "Instant Minter" badge, and full decentralized ownership — independent of our servers.
Cost: $2–$20 depending on session length, or equivalent in Time26 at a 20% discount.
3. Technical Architecture
We chose this stack because permanence isn't a feature you add later. It has to be foundational.
| Layer | Technology | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Next.js 16 + Three.js | WebGL 3D rendering for the canvas |
| Consensus | Polygon (PoS) | Fast confirmation, low cost, final ownership record |
| Storage | Arweave | Endowment-based permanent storage |
| Identity | Web3Auth | Social login + external wallet support |
Why Arweave?
AWS and Google Cloud are subscription storage. Stop paying, data disappears. Arweave uses an endowment model: one upfront payment funds perpetual storage through investment returns on the principal. For a project about permanence, there's no real alternative. The tradeoff is cost — Arweave isn't cheap per upload. That's why we absorb it for Standard Proof participants.
4. The Economy: Time as Currency
Time26 ($TIME26)
Time26 is POE's native token. It represents attention — the time you actually spent creating, not capital you invested.
- Symbol: $TIME26
- Total Supply: 48,420,000
Why 48,420,000?
The number maps directly to time. Here's the breakdown:
User Rewards (65%) — 31,536,000 tokens
One token per second of 2026. 365 days × 86,400 seconds = 31,536,000. Every second of the year has a corresponding token. This is the supply reserved entirely for creators.
Ecosystem (35%) — 16,884,000 tokens
- 10,000,000 (21%) — Liquidity Pool (Uniswap and markets)
- 4,730,400 (10%) — Team (long-term builder incentives)
- 2,153,600 (4%) — Operations Reserve (infrastructure, events, emergencies)
Total: 31.5M + 16.9M = 48,420,000
How You Earn (Existence Mining)
Standard Proof participants earn Time26 through Existence Mining:
Reward = Σ (1 TIME26 / number of people in that sector at that second)
Draw in a crowded sector: you earn a fraction of the second's value. Draw in an empty area: you earn the full second. This distributes activity across the canvas without forcing anyone anywhere.
Pricing (Perpetual Proof)
| Session Length | USDC | Time26 (20% discount) |
|---|---|---|
| Under 10 minutes | $2.00 | ~160 $TIME26 |
| 10–30 minutes | $5.00 | ~400 $TIME26 |
| 30–60 minutes | $10.00 | ~800 $TIME26 |
| 1 hour+ | $20.00 | ~1,600 $TIME26 |
Time26 prices adjust via oracle to maintain the 20% discount relative to USD.
The Sustainability Valve
Protocol revenue from Perpetual Proof fees flows through a dynamic mechanism:
Phase A — Deflation
When: early stage, or stable supply above 30M tokens.
100% of revenue buys back and burns $TIME26 from the open market. Supply decreases. Held tokens gain scarcity value over time.
Phase B — Sustainability
When: supply drops below 30M, or price becomes unsustainable.
20% burn, 80% to Treasury. Treasury funds operations past 2026, including the 2027 exhibition phase.
This isn't novel mechanism design — it's a practical answer to the question every crypto project avoids: what happens after the hype? We'd rather answer it upfront.
5. The Future: 2027 and Beyond
2026: The Recording Phase
- Q1–Q2: Protocol launch. First trails drawn. Genesis blocks established.
- Q3–Q4: "Gravity Field" events — community co-creation of large thematic canvases.
2027: The Exhibition Phase
The canvas closes on January 1, 2027.
Trails will be shown in immersive exhibitions in New York, Tokyo, and London — the first decentralized generative art show at this scale. Every proof holder is eligible to mint a physical Time Capsule containing a holographic projection of their trail.
We don't know exactly what these will look like yet. That uncertainty is part of the point.
2028+: The Permanent Archive
All data remains on Arweave. Future researchers — human or AI — will find in these trails a behavioral record of 2026: what people made, where they went, how long they stayed, what shapes they left behind.
FAQ
What does it cost to participate?
Standard Proof is free. We cover all gas and Arweave storage costs. Perpetual Proof (immediate NFT) costs $2–$20 depending on session length.
What happens to my data if POE shuts down?
Standard Proof data is batched and uploaded to Arweave by the protocol before each day closes. Perpetual Proof data is written to Arweave immediately at the time of minting. In both cases, the data exists on Arweave independent of POE's servers.
What is Time26 used for?
Paying for Perpetual Proof at a 20% discount vs. USD, and as a record of participation. The token is designed to reflect time contributed, not speculative position-taking.
When does the canvas close?
January 1, 2027. Everything drawn before that date is part of the permanent record.
Do I need a crypto wallet or prior blockchain experience?
No. Web3Auth supports Google, X, Facebook, Apple, and Line login — a wallet is created automatically. External wallets (MetaMask, etc.) also work if you prefer full self-custody.