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Nepheral

Terms of Use

Last updated:

In short. Nepheral is beta software on a test network, provided as it is. You hold your own keys: if you lose your password and your recovery words, no one can give your account back. The code is published under the Business Source License 1.1: you may use, run, change and share it for almost anything, including running nodes for profit, but not offer it as a competing commercial service; each version becomes Apache 2.0 four years after it is published.

1. What these terms cover

These terms apply to the Nepheral apps for Windows, Linux and Android, the Nepheral node software, and the websites nepheral.net and dl.nepheral.net, all published by Javier Hernandez ("we", "us"). By using any of them you accept these terms. How we handle data is in the Privacy Policy.

2. A beta, on a test network

Nepheral is in beta and runs on a test network. It can fail, change without notice, or be reset, and a reset can erase balances and history. Do not rely on it for anything important.

3. The software and its license

Nepheral's software is published under the Business Source License 1.1 (BUSL-1.1), withJavier Hernandez as Licensor. The license itself governs the software, and its full text is on thelicense page. Where these terms and the license differ about the software, the license prevails. In plain words:

What you may do

  • Use, copy, modify, make works derived from, and redistribute the software, for any purpose, including production use.
  • Run Nepheral nodes that join the Nepheral network: hold fragments, answer questions, take part in the draw, and earn, hold, redeem or transfer credits, for profit and at commercial scale if you like.
  • Use it inside your own organization, including on infrastructure you rent.
  • Use it for personal, research, educational and evaluation purposes.
  • Contribute to it, and publish forks, patches, analyses, benchmarks and security research.

What needs a commercial license from us

Offering Nepheral, or a work substantially derived from it, to others as a commercial product or service that:

  • gives them the substantial functionality of Nepheral as a hosted, managed, embedded or white-labeled offering, however it is charged for; or
  • runs, or materially helps someone run, a separate or competing network, ledger or credit system derived from Nepheral whose units are sold or exchanged for value.

For that, write to licensing@nepheral.net.

When it becomes open source

Each version of the software changes to the Apache License 2.0 on the fourth anniversary of the day it was first published. From then on that version can be used under Apache 2.0 with none of the limits above.

Names and logos

The license gives no rights to the Nepheral name or logo.

4. Your account and your keys

Your account is created and kept on your device. Your password and your 24 recovery words are the only way into it, and we never have them. If you lose both, no one can recover the account or what it holds. Keep the recovery words offline, somewhere safe, and never share them: anyone who has them controls your account.

5. Credits

Credits are units of the Nepheral network: devices earn them by holding fragments and answering questions, and spend them when the network answers theirs. Credits are for using the network. They are not a deposit, we do not hold them for you, they are not an investment, and no one, including us, promises they will keep any value or can be exchanged for anything. While the network is a test network, credits, earned or bought, can be lost in a reset. Payments made in Litecoin cannot be reversed.

6. Using Nepheral properly

You agree not to:

  • use Nepheral for anything illegal, or to create or spread unlawful content;
  • attack, overload or disrupt the network or other people's devices;
  • try to read questions you were not chosen to answer, put together fragments you hold, or find out who asked a question;
  • get around the network's rules, or the limits of the license above.

7. If your device answers questions

A node that answers a question sees its text. The Nepheral software uses it only to produce the answer and does not keep it. You agree not to change it, or use anything else, to keep, read off or pass on the questions your node is given.

8. AI answers

Answers are written by AI models running on other people's computers. They can be wrong, incomplete or offensive, and they are not professional advice, medical, legal, financial or of any other kind. Check anything important. You can rate an answer, or mark it as harmful, in the app.

9. No warranty

Nepheral is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose, to the fullest extent the law allows.

10. Limits on liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for lost credits, data or profits, arising from your use of Nepheral or your inability to use it. Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law where you live does not allow to be limited, or takes away your rights as a consumer.

11. Stopping

You can stop using Nepheral at any time by uninstalling it. We may change or stop the software, the websites or the nodes we run.

12. Changes

Any change to these terms will be published on this page, with a new date at the top.

13. Contact

privacy@nepheral.net, or licensing@nepheral.net for licensing.