the rules

the field

1,000 lanterns, numbered 1 to 1000. Each one's dna is fixed the moment the contract is deployed, so every shape, glass, metal and flame is on chain before anybody can light a single one.

lighting

Pick a dark lantern and light it with one to four cans of oil. It is yours, burning. Nobody can take a burning lantern.

oil

A can of oil is twelve hours of flame. A lantern holds four (48 hours). Anybody can pour oil into any burning lantern — their own, or a friend's; it stays the holder's. A can costs 2,000 $LANTERN on day 1 and gets dearer every day: day d costs 2,000 × (6 + d) ÷ 7, so day 14 is about three times day 1.

where the oil goes

A quarter of every can is burned. The other three quarters go into the season's pot, held by the contract.

going dark

When the oil runs out, the lantern goes dark. A dark lantern can be lit by anybody — and lighting somebody else's dark lantern takes it. Its holder can relight it too, if they get there first.

the season

Fourteen days. Season 1 starts on the hour the token goes live; each season starts the moment the last one ends. Nothing burns past the finale: a tank can only be filled up to the end of the season.

the finale

At the end of day 14, every lantern still burning takes an equal share of the pot. Dark lanterns take nothing. If no lantern is burning, the whole pot rolls into the next season; the dust from dividing it always does.

the survivors

Every lantern that burns through a finale carries 24 hours of flame into the next season, and the survival is written onto it for good.

collecting

A lantern's share waits on the lantern until its holder collects it. If the lantern changes hands first — sold, sent, or taken while dark — whatever it is owed goes to the holder it is leaving, first.

settling

The finale is settled by the first transaction of the new season — any light, oil, collect, transfer or sale — or by anybody pressing settle. It counts the field on chain, in one go.

the market

List a lantern at any price. A sale pays the seller 95%; 5% is burned. Any move takes the listing down. Lanterns are ordinary NFTs, so they move anywhere else too.

what cannot happen

The contract cannot hold ETH, pay anybody but a lantern's holder, relight a lantern for free, move the calendar, take a royalty, pause, or upgrade. The owner key names the token once, and is inert forever after.