What is Bitword, and what is this site?
Bitword is the coming platform where everyone is real: every person and business verified, every @name and brand word held by exactly one owner on Earth. This site is the free early window, and your name is alive the moment you claim it: fan clubs, challenges, leagues, a world already cheering. Claiming is free and takes about a minute. Everything you build here rides onto Bitword at the migration. The rest of this page answers the good questions.
Why two sites?
Bitword is heavy on purpose: verification of every person and business, real reviews, real places. It opens in stages. This site is stage one and light on purpose: it holds names and runs the clubs, challenges, and leagues while the platform is built. The light site gathers the world; the heavy site keeps it. At the migration, everything here rides across.
What does claiming a @name cost? What is the catch?
Nothing. Claiming is free, first come first served, and takes about a minute: pick a name, check that it is available, enter your email, and claim it. The one thing to know is that your email matters. When the platform opens, every name goes through verification before it is owned, so a name claimed with a fake address will not make it through that step.
What happens to my name when the platform opens?
That day is the Smile Migration, when every reserved name goes live on Bitword. Before a name becomes owned there, its holder is verified, and that verification is where any disputes get settled, in favor of the verified party. Full account controls arrive at that point too. Claim with a real email address you can open, and you are set.
What are Fan Clubs?
Fan Clubs are groups on this site that anyone can join with their @name, and anyone who has claimed a name can start one. Clubs are the teams here: a club can face other clubs in challenges, and when you join a club you also join its side in whatever round is underway at the time.
What is a challenge, and how is it decided?
A challenge is two clubs facing off for a set time. Fans join a side and vote, the votes decide it, and each fan gets one vote per challenge. Challenges are fan-run, and in a challenge both clubs win: both stands fill, one side just ends up a little ahead, and the rematch door is always open.
What is the Big Board?
The Big Board is the ranked list of the top 100 challenges on the site. It is the place to see which challenges are drawing the most attention right now. If you are looking for something to join or follow, start there.
What are leagues and seasons?
A league is a season of scheduled challenges among a set of clubs, with standings and playoffs. Any claimed account can create one and invite clubs to it. A league appears publicly once every invited club has accepted, so nothing shows up half-formed.
How do I start a club, a challenge, or a league?
First claim your @name, since each of these needs one. Starting a club takes nothing more than that, and then you invite people by sharing it yourself. To start a challenge, you receive two invite links, one for each club, and you deliver them yourself; nothing becomes public until both clubs accept. A league works the same way: create it, invite the clubs, and it goes public once everyone invited has said yes.
Where does my name live? What if I clear my browser or switch devices?
Your email is the anchor for your account. Day to day, you manage the name from the browser you claimed it in, and your email opens your dashboard from any device. If you clear your browser or move to a new phone or laptop, use your email to get back in. Full account controls arrive when the platform opens.
Could someone else hold a name that should be mine?
Yes, it can happen, because names go to whoever claims them first during this window. What you can do is claim yours now, with a real email address. When the platform opens, every name goes through verification before it is owned, and a name held with a fake address does not survive that step. Any dispute is resolved at that verification, in favor of the verified party.
Will this site email my friends or my club members for me?
No. This site sends nothing: no email, no messages, no reminders, to anyone, ever. When you start a challenge you get the invite links and pass them along yourself, and the same goes for bringing friends into a club or a league. Your people only hear from you. And that is worth turning around: since this site never sends email, any message claiming to be it is not it.
What will a business account cost later?
Free today and through the first year, and nothing here ever charges: we hold no card and no contract, so there is nothing to charge and nothing to cancel. On Bitword, businesses will hold verified paid places, and the philosophy is simple: an account renews only because its owner chooses to, after it has earned its place. If you do nothing, it simply closes, and nothing is ever owed.
What does 'everyone you bring stays yours' actually mean?
When someone joins from the link you shared, they are credited to you, and that credit is permanent. Here on this site it is simply a record of who brought whom; everything you do on this site is free, and reserving is free for everyone. Later, on Bitword, shares of the subscriptions of the people you brought flow to you. The details of how that works live on the platform side, not here.
What if the platform never opens?
It is already opening: bitword.co is live today, and this site is its free reservation window. Reserving here is free for everyone, and this site never takes a payment. For people, your @name costs nothing, here or on Bitword. For businesses, holding your words here is free, and verified ownership is completed later on Bitword. After migration to Bitword, businesses decide to buy the reserved names or release them to the public.
If something is still unclear, ask; the good questions end up on this page.