One tap, two endings: every mint press lands in the opening window together; a quiet close mints instantly, a contested close locks the list, draws it, and seats the winners on a fixed beat.

--- title: "Fair Draw — Overview" description: "When more collectors want a drop than there are Outputs, PD settles it with a human-speed race and a provably fair draw — no gas wars, no auctions, no allowlists, one tap." category: "fair-draw" keywords: ["fair draw", "contested mint", "drop", "mint window", "sniping", "bots", "the draw", "fair mint", "gas war"] last_updated: "2026-10-12" --- # Fair Draw — Overview Some drops will have more real collectors than Outputs. On most platforms that moment is where everything breaks: bots win the block race, gas fees explode, and the humans who showed up for the art walk away with nothing. Whole platforms have died on it. Price Discussion settles contested drops differently, on one idea: > **Time is the only thing nobody can fake, buy, or multiply.** A simultaneous drop at *machine* speed is a bot's game. The same drop at *human* speed — where everyone who shows up in the opening seconds counts the same — is a game only humans can enter. ## What you actually do Nothing new. You fly to the mint button like always: 1. **Tap MINT and confirm once in your wallet.** That is your entire job — one tap, ever. There is no queue page, no raffle form, no come-back-later, no second step. 2. **Everyone who taps in the opening minute counts as simultaneous.** Every drop on PD opens this way — it is not a mode anyone turns on. Nobody is "first." Being 40 milliseconds faster — the only thing a sniping script is good at — buys nothing. 3. **If the drop isn't oversubscribed, you just mint.** Instantly, exactly like any other mint. Most drops never look any different. 4. **If more collectors tapped than Outputs exist, the drop flips CONTESTED — live, in front of the room** — and a fair draw settles it over the next few minutes. Win, and your Output is yours: paid and delivered from that one tap, no action needed. Miss, and your money never moved — there is nothing to refund, nothing to unwind. - **①︎ One tap, confirmed once** — your entire job, contested or not. - **②︎ The window** — everyone in the opening moment counts the same; being milliseconds faster buys nothing. - **③︎ Quiet** — most drops: instant, indistinguishable from any mint you've ever done. - **④︎ Contested** — the list is locked, then drawn, and seats go out on a fixed beat over a few minutes; lose and your money never moved. > **What your wallet will show you.** One signature request, at the moment you tap: the exact Output and the exact payment — the price on the button — authorized once. That signed order is all PD ever holds; **your money stays in your wallet** unless you win, in which case the order executes exactly as signed. Lose, and the order is torn up — nothing ever left, so there is nothing to refund. > > **What PD hands back.** An entry receipt: your entry exactly as PD recorded it, signed by PD's settlement key. The app keeps it on your account and on your device. No receipt, no entry — the app tells you, and never says you're in without one. ## What PD never does - **No auctions.** No bidding mechanics, nothing that turns a surprise drop into a spreadsheet exercise. - **No allowlists.** Every drop opens to everyone, the same way, at the same moment. - **No gas wars.** There is no on-chain race to win, so there is nothing to outbid. Losing a contested draw costs you nothing at all. - **No escrow.** PD never holds your money. Payment happens only in the same instant an Output becomes yours — the contract cannot hold a balance, by design. ## The two promises **The draw cannot be rigged — including by us.** The full entry list is locked on Ethereum before the random number that draws it exists. A seat passes down the line only when the order can no longer land from its winner's wallet, always to the next name in the drawn line, and any seat the rules don't give fails the public check. Every drop's record is published and copied to Arweave, and your own browser can check it against Ethereum. What PD can still do is narrow, and it shows on the record. See [How a Drop Settles](/docs/fair-draw/how-a-drop-settles). **A drop cannot be stranded — including by us.** If PD's own settlement service died mid-drop, minting opens by itself at a hard deadline written immutably into the project's contract at deploy. Nothing off-platform — and nothing at PD — can ever permanently stop a mint. ## Who wins when real collectors outnumber Outputs When a drop is contested among genuine collectors, priority is a stated, public policy — read [Fair Play](/docs/fair-draw/fair-play) for exactly how it works and why it can afford to be transparent.