Backer Benefits, Medallions, and Joules

When you back a project on Liana Banyan, you’re not buying a lottery ticket in someone else’s IPO. You’re helping build real things and earning real working power inside the cooperative.

1. What You Get When You Back a Project

  • The product or service you preordered.
  • A project medallion in your medallion collection — a permanent, notarized record that you helped make that project real.
  • Joules (when you pay above the base price), which increase your internal working and buying power.

Example: you pay $150 for something that will retail at $100. You get the product plus 50 Joules.

2. Joules: Fuel, Not Stock

Joules are higher-order internal units.

  • They back your offers and contracts, and they can convert into Credits on better terms as you participate more.
  • They never become cash, never turn into equity, and never change exchange rate based on project performance.
  • Joules are like forever stamps — their value is determined by the forex-style ratchet system, not by any single project’s success.
  • You can buy Joules at 1.2x during special events or at 5% discount every 10th tier increase.

What Joules Do for You

  1. Back your MARKS offers — More Joules = ability to make bigger or more numerous offers backed by Joule collateral for work, services, contracts, and MatchTrade.
  2. Better credit conversion — Extra ability to convert to better terms of Credits, which means more work buying power.
  3. Facilitate earning — Joules facilitate the making of money without ever actually transferring any actual money. It works because it’s a closed system — always.

The Founder’s Explanation

“Joules exist so that when you overpay in dollars today, you don’t get a lottery ticket in some future IPO; you get more engine power inside the cooperative — more ability to back your work, strike better terms, and turn effort into income without ever gambling on a token price.”

3. Project Medallion Access Rights

When a member backs a project at a premium (for example, paying $150 for a $100 item and generating a 50-Joule gap), that support is recorded as a project-stamped medallion plus the awarded Joules in the IP ledger. In future campaigns directly related to that project, the platform may grant that member first-access and pre-order rights up to the amount of their original support gap (e.g., 50 units of preorder capacity), but:

  • This access is a non-cash perk, not a profit share.
  • It does not change the exchange rate or economic value of Joules or Credits.
  • It does not create any right to past or future revenue from that project.

Project medallions can unlock priority and participation, but never cash or variable token pricing.

4. Ownership Lives Somewhere Else

If you want true ownership, you don’t get it through tokens; you get it through the Sponsor Pool in the Upekrithen patent portfolio. The $5,000 Sponsorship (and proportional lower tiers starting at $25) is the only path to owning a slice of that 20% portfolio pool — something you can hold for decades and resell if you choose.

Tokens are tools. Sponsor Units are ownership.

Structural Bylaws (Codified)

No Appreciation Tokens

Platform credits, Joules, and medallions do not grant fractional claims on project- or platform-level profits and do not appreciate in dollar value based on campaign performance or enterprise valuation. Backers receive fixed-value credits or Joules for overpayment, which increase their internal purchasing power and contract-backing capacity, not their right to external cash returns. System-level benefits (better prices, more initiatives) are the mechanism for shared prosperity, not token price increases.

Joule Purpose

Joules are higher-order internal units that (a) back member offers and contracts, (b) may convert into Credits on more favorable terms for active contributors, and (c) may be offered at promotional exchange rates during defined events. Joules facilitate members’ ability to earn and trade within the cooperative but are never redeemable for cash or transferable outside the platform.

Project Medallion Access Rights

When a member backs a project at a premium, that support is recorded as a project-stamped medallion plus awarded Joules in the IP ledger. In future campaigns directly related to that project, the platform may grant first-access and pre-order rights up to the amount of the original support gap, but this access is a non-cash perk, does not change the exchange rate of Joules or Credits, and does not create any right to past or future revenue from that project.