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There are two ways to receive Vibe Tokens: through referral earnings, where tokens are minted to you automatically when a customer you referred generates revenue, and through founder treasury grants, where a founder allocates tokens to you directly before any revenue exists. Both paths give you tokens that participate in future distributions and can be exited through the queue.

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Referral Earnings

When you refer a customer and that customer pays the founder, the system mints tokens to you based on the revenue share parameter α, the size of the revenue event, and the current token price P. Formula:
How it works, step by step:
  1. You refer a customer to the founder’s software product.
  2. The customer pays the founder — a revenue event of dR dollars is recorded.
  3. The system calculates your tokens: floor(α × dR ÷ P).
  4. That many tokens are minted and credited to your account.
Worked example — early in the token’s life:
  • α = 0.20, dR = 250,P=250, P = 1.00
  • tokens = floor(0.20 × 250 ÷ 1.00) = floor(50.00) = 50 tokens
Worked example — later, when supply has grown:
  • α = 0.20, dR = 250,P=250, P = 3.00
  • tokens = floor(0.20 × 250 ÷ 3.00) = floor(16.67) = 16 tokens
The same referral — same α, same dR — yields 34 fewer tokens simply because the price has risen. The dollar value of that contribution is identical; the token count is not. Key insight: early contributors earn more tokens per dollar of revenue referred because price P is lower early in the token’s life. As supply grows, P rises along the bonding curve, and each revenue event yields fewer tokens. Getting in early is a structural advantage, not a marketing claim.

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Treasury Grants

Before revenue exists, a founder can grant tokens from their pre-mint treasury to contributors who are helping build the foundation — before there’s anything to refer.
  • You receive tokens directly, with no revenue event required.
  • Your tokens immediately participate in all future distributions once revenue begins.
  • Treasury grants are entirely at the founder’s discretion.
Typical recipients of treasury grants include launch promoters who spread the word before the product exists, beta testers who stress-tested the software before any paying customers arrived, and early community members who provided feedback, introductions, or infrastructure support.

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Why Tokens Can’t Be Purchased

Vibe Tokens are intentionally not for sale. This is not a feature that might change — it is a legal design decision. Selling tokens for money would constitute a securities offering, which requires regulatory registration, disclosures, and compliance infrastructure that most small software businesses cannot support. Earning tokens through referrals and contributions is compensation for labor — the same legal category as a commission, a bonus, or a contractor fee. That distinction protects both the founder and the contributors. If someone offers to sell you Vibe Tokens directly, that is outside the system design and carries legal risk for the seller.
Earlier is better. As the token economy grows and more contributors earn tokens, circulating supply S increases, which pushes price P higher along the bonding curve. Every future revenue event mints fewer tokens than the same event would have minted today. The structural benefit of being an early contributor compounds over time.
Tokens are whole integers. The floor() in the formula means any fractional result is discarded — not rounded, discarded. A calculation that yields 16.99 produces 16 tokens, not 17. At very high prices or very small revenue events, the calculation may produce 0 tokens. If α × dR is less than P, you earn nothing from that event.