The Rules
The fine print, in regular print.
Most rules pages are written so you won't read them. We wrote ours so you will.
⚠️ Draft — Not yet legally reviewed
This page is a working draft. It has not yetbeen reviewed by sweepstakes counsel. Don't rely on it for legal compliance. Everything below is subject to material change before launch. We're publishing it early because radical transparency beats polite secrecy.
The rules in 5 bullets
- 🔞 You must be 18 or older.
- 📍 You can't enter from NY or CA (yet).
- 💸 No purchase necessary — there's always a free way in.
- 🎲 Winners are picked by math, not by us.
- 🪪 Big winners go through KYC before payout.
The rest of this page is the longer, lawyer-friendlier version of the same five bullets.
§01
Who can play
Open to humans (the carbon-based kind) aged 18 or older at the moment of entry, who legally reside in an eligible jurisdiction. Employees of BitPoolz, its sponsor, and their immediate family members cannot play — for obvious reasons. Residents of New York and Californiaare excluded while we sort through final legal review. Sorry, NY and CA. We'll be back.
§02
No purchase necessary. Ever.
You never have to spend a single sat to win on BitPoolz. Every pool has a free entry path (Pool B), and every free entry earns one ticket into The Tsunami — a site-wide bonus jackpot drawn periodically from the combined free-entry pool. Buying a paid entry does not increase your odds in The Tsunami; only free entries count toward it.
§03
How to enter the free pool (Pool B → The Tsunami)
Submit one entry per pool using the free-entry form with a valid email address. One (1) free entry per email, per pool. Each valid free entry earns one ticket into the next Tsunami drawing. Free entries do not affect Pool A odds, and Pool A entries do not earn Tsunami tickets.
§04
How to enter the paid pool (Pool A)
Send satoshis to the Lightning invoice shown on any pool's detail page. Minimum 1 sat. 1 sat = 1 ticket.No tiers, no packages, no "premium entries." If your entry would push the pool over its cap, we'll automatically reject the overage — only the portion that fits is accepted. Nobody overshoots the pot.
§05
The odds, calculated honestly
Pool A (per pool): your_sats ÷ pool_target. Send 10,000 sats into a 1,000,000-sat pool → 1% chance of winning Pool A.
The Tsunami (site-wide): your_free_tickets ÷ total_free_tickets at the time of the draw. Each valid free entry is worth exactly one ticket.
Final odds depend on total participation and can't be known in advance. They're always recomputable from the public ledger.
The Tsunami (site-wide): your_free_tickets ÷ total_free_tickets at the time of the draw. Each valid free entry is worth exactly one ticket.
Final odds depend on total participation and can't be known in advance. They're always recomputable from the public ledger.
§06
How the draw actually happens
Before any entries are accepted, the pool publishes a SHA-256 commitment of a 32-byte server seed — locking in a secret value the operator cannot later change.
When the pool fills, we anchor the draw to a future Bitcoin block hash — a number nobody, including us, can predict. The final randomness is computed as
The server seed is then published. Anyone can re-run the math from the public values and verify the result independently. Verify a real draw →
When the pool fills, we anchor the draw to a future Bitcoin block hash — a number nobody, including us, can predict. The final randomness is computed as
sha256(server_seed || anchor_block_hash). Both winners are derived deterministically from that number.The server seed is then published. Anyone can re-run the math from the public values and verify the result independently. Verify a real draw →
§07
How winners get paid
Winners are notified by email and/or wallet message, and must respond within 14 days. Pool A prizes pay out to the Lightning wallet on file with the winning entry — typically within seconds of the draw resolving. Tsunami prizes pay out via Lightning after the winner completes identity verification (see next section).
§08
KYC — what it is and why we need it
KYC stands for "Know Your Customer." It's the financial industry term for "prove you are who you say you are before we hand you money."If you've ever opened a bank account or signed up for Coinbase, you've done KYC.
In practice, it looks like:
- 📷 A photo of a government-issued ID (driver's license, passport)
- 🤳 A selfie that gets matched against the ID
- 📝 Sometimes a utility bill to confirm your address
A third-party verification provider handles the whole thing. We never see your actual ID or selfie — they just give us a thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
Why we have to do it:
- The law. US regulators require operators to verify identity before paying out prizes above certain thresholds. Skip it, lose the license — and you lose the prize for good.
- Anti-fraud. Without KYC, someone could spin up 10,000 fake accounts and sweep The Tsunami. KYC makes that prohibitively expensive.
- Tax reporting.Big prizes (over ~$600 in the US) trigger a 1099 form. We need a real name and address to file it, so you don't get a surprise IRS letter.
When you actually have to do it:
- 🌊 Tsunami winners — always, regardless of prize size.
- 🏆 Pool A winners only when the prize exceeds the applicable reporting threshold (~$600 USD-equivalent in bitcoin). Small wins skip KYC entirely and pay out instantly.
Unverified prizes are forfeited after 30 days. That's not us being mean — it's a regulatory requirement.
§09
Geographic restrictions
Entry is restricted in jurisdictions where sweepstakes of this type are unlawful. Currently excluded: New York, California. Additional restrictions may apply pending final legal review. If you're unsure, assume excluded until we say otherwise — we'd rather lose an entry than a license.
§10
Disputes
All disputes arising from these Rules or your participation in BitPoolz shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules, in the State of Delaware. Class actions are waived to the maximum extent permitted by law.
§11
Governing law
These Rules are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws provisions.
§12
Who we are
Sponsor: BitPoolz, Inc. (placeholder name pending Delaware incorporation). The final operating entity, registered address, and contact details will be finalized before launch and listed here.
Questions about anything on this page? We answer them.
Email hello@bitpoolz.com — a human reads it.