Terms & Risks

What it is

Milestone Pools lets people pool money toward a goal. The money is held by a smart contract, not by a person or a company, and is released in steps (milestones) only when a fixed committee of reviewers approves each step.

It is software that runs on a public blockchain. It is not a bank, an investment product, a charity, an escrow service or a payment processor, and nobody promises that any initiative will succeed or that any milestone will be delivered.

Test version. While the app shows a test network, the token is a free test token with no value, and nothing here involves real money.

The rules, in plain language

• Creating. Whoever creates an initiative sets the milestones and amounts, the review committee (3 to 9 wallets) and how many must approve each milestone (always a majority). After creation none of this can be changed by anyone.
• Funding.People contribute during a funding period of 1 to 90 days. If the goal is reached, it goes ahead immediately. If the period ends below the goal but at or above the creator's minimum, it goes ahead with every milestone scaled down in proportion. Below the minimum, everyone can take their money back in full.
• Open calls. If no grantee was named, anyone can offer to do the work once funding is secured, and the committee votes. If they cannot agree within 30 days, everyone is refunded.
• Milestones.The grantee submits a link to evidence. The committee has 14 days to vote. Enough approvals credit that milestone's amount to the grantee, who then withdraws it. Once approval is no longer possible, the attempt is rejected right away. If the committee does not decide in time, that also counts as a rejection.
• Three tries. A milestone can be submitted up to 3 times. After the third rejection the initiative fails and the money not yet paid out is shared back to backers in proportion to what each contributed.
• Silence. If a grantee does not submit anything for 60 days, anyone can cancel the initiative, and the unpaid part is shared back to backers the same way.
• Refunds are not automatic. You claim your refund and your payments yourself, each in a separate transaction.
• Rounding.Shares are rounded down to the smallest unit of the token. A few units of “dust” can stay in the contract after everyone has claimed.

Risks

Using this means accepting these. Some are small, some could cost you everything you put in.

• The code may have bugs

  The contract has an automated test suite and a static-analysis pass, and the results are published with the code. It has not been audited by an independent security firm. Tests and tools do not prove code is free of bugs. A bug could lock or lose funds.

• Bugs cannot be fixed

  The contract has no owner, no admin, no pause button and no upgrade path. This is deliberate, so nobody can take or freeze your funds. It also means that if a flaw is found, nobody can patch the deployed contract.

• The committee decides, and humans can be wrong or dishonest

  The contract checks that a majority of the committee voted. It cannot check that the work was good. If a majority of reviewers agree with each other, for any reason, they can release money for work that was not done, and they can withhold it for work that was. Look at who the reviewers are before you contribute.

• The grantee may not deliver

  A grantee can take a payment for one milestone and then stop. You can lose the part already paid out. Only the part not yet paid out is protected by the refund rules.

• Token risk

  Contributions are held in a token. If that token loses value, is frozen by its issuer or has a flaw, the pooled money is affected. Tokens that take a fee on transfer are rejected, but other unusual token behaviour could still cause problems.

• Mistakes are permanent

  Blockchain transactions cannot be reversed. Sending funds with the wrong address, losing your wallet keys or approving the wrong amount cannot be undone by anyone. Check addresses carefully, and in particular the grantee and committee addresses when you create an initiative.

• Timing and fees

  Deadlines are measured in blockchain time, which can differ by a few seconds or more from your clock. Each action costs a network fee, and fees can be high when the network is busy. Small contributions may cost more in fees than they are worth.

• Everything is public

  Addresses, amounts, votes and the links you submit are visible to anyone, permanently. Do not put personal or confidential information in an initiative, an evidence link or a pitch.

• Links can change or disappear

  Titles, descriptions and evidence are stored as text or links. A link can go offline or change after a vote. Reviewers should keep their own copy of what they judged.

• The website is separate from the contract

  This website is a convenience. It can go down, contain mistakes or show stale data. The contract keeps working without it, and you can always interact with the contract directly with other tools.

• Rules, tax and the law

  Laws about pooling money, grants, digital tokens and tax differ between countries and can change. Nothing on this site says what is allowed, registered, licensed or taxable where you live or where the grantee lives. If it matters for you, ask a qualified professional.

Who controls what

• Nobody can move, freeze, edit or redirect funds held by the contract except through the rules above.
• The creator cannot change an initiative after creating it, and has no special power over its money.
• Only the named grantee can submit milestones and only they can withdraw the payments credited to them.
• Only the committee votes on milestones and on choosing a grantee, and the committee cannot be changed.
• Anyone can trigger the time-based steps (closing funding, closing a lapsed review, cancelling for inactivity).

Your responsibilities

• Only contribute what you can afford to lose.
• Read the initiative, the milestones and the committee before contributing.
• If you are a reviewer, vote honestly and on time. A missed vote counts against the grantee.
• Keep your own keys safe. Nobody can recover them for you.
• Follow the laws and tax rules that apply to you.

Changes to this page

This page is versioned. When it changes, the version number and date at the top change, and the previous text stays available in the project's public history. The contract itself never changes.

• 1.0 (15 October 2026): first version.