Terms of Use

Last updated: 6 July 2026

These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of protoledger.org (the "Site") and its content, including the ProtoLedger Money Standard and related specifications (together, the "Materials"). The Site is operated by Oleh Bezuhlyi ("we", "us", "operator"). By accessing or using the Site, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Site.

1. What the Site is

protoledger.org is an informational resource that publishes a measurement standard for evaluating money and the systems that issue it, together with related documents and a public challenge process. The Site is provided for general information, research, and discussion.

2. No financial, investment, or legal advice

Nothing on the Site is, or should be relied upon as, financial, investment, tax, accounting, or legal advice, nor a recommendation, offer, or solicitation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. The Standard is a measurement instrument, not an endorsement; any scores or assessments are opinions formed against published criteria and are not guarantees of any outcome. Assessments of specific assets or systems may be produced by us or by third parties and may be incomplete, out of date, or contested. You are solely responsible for your own decisions and for obtaining independent professional advice where appropriate.

3. Intellectual property and licensing

The ProtoLedger Money Standard and the ProtoLedger Core specification are released under the Apache License, Version 2.0. You may use, reproduce, and adapt those specifications in accordance with that licence — fork them, challenge them, improve them.

Other elements of the Site — including its design, layout, code, and non-specification text — are © Oleh Bezuhlyi unless stated otherwise, and are made available only for your personal, non-commercial use of the Site, except where a more permissive licence is expressly granted. Trademarks and names remain the property of their respective owners.

4. Your submissions

If you submit content through the Site — for example a challenge (leaf, constitutional, or completeness) or a message via the contact form — you confirm that you are entitled to submit it and that it does not infringe the rights of others or violate any law.

Challenge submissions are made as part of an open, public process. By submitting a challenge you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive licence to use, reproduce, publish, and adapt the submission for the purpose of operating the Standard and its challenge log. Published challenges and accepted corrections are attributed to the challenger by name, as described in the challenge process. Do not submit information you regard as confidential; submissions are not treated as confidential.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use the Site in any way that breaches applicable law or these Terms;
• attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Site, its server, or its data, or to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system without authorisation;
• interfere with or disrupt the Site, including by overloading, flooding, or spamming submission forms, or by circumventing rate limits or security measures;
• introduce malware or any other harmful code;
• scrape, harvest, or collect data from the Site in a manner that imposes an unreasonable load or that violates any applicable law; or
• misrepresent your identity or affiliation, or submit false or misleading content.

6. Third-party links

The Site links to third-party resources, including CryptoBeholder, which hosts live assessments and tools built on the Standard. We do not control and are not responsible for third-party sites or their content, and a link does not imply endorsement. Your use of third-party sites is governed by their own terms.

7. Availability and changes

We may change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Site, the Materials, or the Standard at any time. The Standard is versioned; earlier versions are archived and are not silently edited. We may also revise these Terms from time to time; the "Last updated" date above indicates when they were last changed, and your continued use of the Site after a change constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

8. Disclaimer of warranties

The Site and the Materials are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Site will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, or that any content is accurate, complete, or current. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or in connection with your use of, or inability to use, the Site or the Materials — even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. To the extent liability cannot be wholly excluded, it is limited to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. Statutory rights that cannot be waived are unaffected.

10. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the Site, or your submissions.

11. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules, and — to the extent permitted by law — the courts competent for the operator's place of business shall have jurisdiction. Mandatory consumer-protection provisions of your country of residence are unaffected.

12. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

13. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent through the contact form on our About page.