Platform Evaluation - February 2026
This document is published as part of our “building in public” commitment. We share our strategic thinking, including our failure analysis, because transparency builds trust.
What Is This?
In February 2026, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the entire Liana Banyan Platform. This evaluation was performed by our AI coordination system (PAWN via Perplexity) with full access to our codebase and documentation.
Why publish this? Because we believe in radical transparency. If we’re asking people to trust our platform with their businesses and livelihoods, they deserve to see how we think about risk.
Platform Scale
| Metric | Count |
|---|---|
| React Pages | 292 |
| Routes | 400+ |
| Components | 530+ |
| Database Migrations | 219 |
| Edge Functions | 75 |
| Documented Innovations | 1,229 |
| Patent Claims | 470+ |
| Initiatives | 16 |
This is a large, ambitious platform. We’ve built what we call an “aircraft carrier” — designed for scale from the start rather than retrofitting later.
Economic Model Validation
Cost+20% Sustainability
Our pricing model is simple: Cost + 20% margin. This means:
- If costs go up, prices go up proportionally
- We’re never caught by inflation
- We can’t race to the bottom on pricing
- Workers always get fair compensation
Example:
- Prototype cost $5,000 → Price = $6,000
- Costs rise to $6,500 → Price = $7,800
- Costs skyrocket to $4M → Price = $4.8M
The math scales automatically.
83.3% Creator Share
| Platform | Creator Share |
|---|---|
| Liana Banyan | 83.3% |
| YouTube | 55% |
| Spotify | ~30% |
| Upwork | 80-90% |
| Uber | ~70-80% |
Our creator share is competitive with the best platforms and dramatically better than music/content platforms.
12 Ways This Could Fail
Yes, we’re publishing our failure analysis. That’s the point.
1. Cold Start Death Spiral
The Risk: No users → no transactions → no reputation → no reason to join
Our Mitigation: Ghost World requires zero account. You can browse and explore without any commitment. We’re also launching with a network of 100+ family members and 40,000 Canada entrepreneurs who have an immediate need.
2. Leadership Letter Rejection
The Risk: All 40+ Crown letters ignored, no leadership, no credibility
Our Mitigation: We’re offering advisory positions (lower commitment), creating urgency with 30-day deadlines, and accepting that success with even ONE leader validates the model.
3. Harper Guild Capture
The Risk: Quality enforcement becomes gatekeeping cartel
Our Mitigation: Random selection algorithm, double-blind review, rotation requirements, appeals process, and public audit results.
4. Patent Maintenance Costs
The Risk: $196M in patent maintenance exceeds revenue
Our Mitigation: Prioritizing patents (100-200 truly patent-worthy, not 1,229), creating reserves, and strategic abandonment of low-value patents.
5. Technical Debt
The Risk: 400+ routes become unmaintainable
Our Mitigation: Active route consolidation, edge function cleanup, and modular architecture.
6. Regulatory Shutdown
The Risk: Regulators misinterpret platform as unlicensed securities
Our Mitigation: Ghost Credits have NO cash value (documented), Joules are transaction tokens not securities, and we have legal review of all terms.
7. Founder Bus Factor
The Risk: Founder incapacitated before knowledge transfer
Our Mitigation: The Memory Wall system externalizes all context to files. Our AI agents can continue without the founder. The DNA Lock survives any leadership change.
8. Initiative Fragmentation
The Risk: 16 initiatives compete, none achieve critical mass
Our Mitigation: Flagship focus on 3 initiatives (Let’s Make Dinner, Defense Klaus, HexIsle), with others as “mothballed ships, ready for boarding.”
9. Cooperative Funding Gap
The Risk: Rejecting VC means slower growth
Our Mitigation: Patent licensing, sponsor program, grants, and crowdfunding. This is a known tradeoff we accept.
10. Information Overload
The Risk: Progressive disclosure fails, users overwhelmed
Our Mitigation: Dictionary with tooltips, plain English alternatives, Ghost World sandbox, onboarding wizard.
11. Competitor Response
The Risk: Established platforms copy or lock us out
Our Mitigation: Patent protection, network effects, and our integration philosophy (“don’t switch, add”).
12. Mission Drift / Enshittification
The Risk: Future leadership extracts value
Our Mitigation: The DNA Lock. This is why we built it. The 83.3%, Cost+20%, and cooperative principles are structural features, not policies. They can’t be changed without rebuilding the platform.
Why We Believe This Will Work
Despite identifying 12 failure modes, we’re launching because:
- The architecture is sound — The DNA Lock and economic model are mathematically defensible
- The worst case is learning — Even failure teaches us what doesn’t work
- The need is real — Platform cooperativism is growing globally
- The protections are structural — We can’t extract from creators even if we wanted to
What’s Next?
- Week 1-4: Launch stabilization, Crown letter responses
- Week 4-12: Leadership pipeline, technical cleanup
- Month 3: First retrospective — what worked, what died on contact with users
We’ll publish updates here as we learn.
This evaluation is part of our commitment to building in public. Questions? Feedback? We’re listening.
FOR THE KEEP.