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The economy

Most apps are built to take your attention. Main's World is built around the opposite idea: the only thing of value is genuine appreciation between real people, and you can only give it — never take it for yourself.

Here's how that works, in plain terms.

Two kinds of balance​

Every Main has two separate balances that never mix:

  • Energy credits — your day-to-day fuel. You get a fresh 10 every day. You spend them to do things: record a tape, appreciate someone, leave a comment. Credits are for doing, not for keeping.
  • $MAIN — the earned currency. The only way to get $MAIN is to have other real people appreciate what you made. You can't buy it, and you can't give it to yourself.

Think of the daily 10 as your voice for the day, and $MAIN as the appreciation you've genuinely earned from others.

"Be kind, rewind"​

When you appreciate someone's tape with a thumbs up, you're spending a little of your own energy to give them a unit of $MAIN. That's the heartbeat of the whole economy: value only comes into being when one real human decides another's moment was worth something.

There is no downvote — appreciation is the only reaction, so no one can be piled on or drained. You can change your mind at any time: take a thumbs up back, give it again — only your first one on a tape ever spends energy, and a gift, once given, stays given.

You can't pay yourself​

One rule holds the whole thing together: no one can ever route value to themselves. You can give your own tape a thumbs up — it shows in the count like anyone else's — but it never pays you anything. Even when a moment is shared among a group, your share never comes from your own spending. Kindness has to travel between people, or it doesn't count.

Buying credits buys voice, not the asset​

You can top up your energy credits (a small top-up for a bit more voice on a busy day). To be crystal clear about what that is and isn't:

  • Buying credits gives you more voice — more tapes, more appreciation to give, more comments.
  • Buying credits never gives you $MAIN. The earned currency can only come from other people appreciating you. That line is deliberate and permanent.

What's live, and what's not​

Main's World runs this as a points-style economy today — the giving, the daily credits, the appreciation. Anything involving cashing out or trading $MAIN as a real asset is not live, and won't be until it's proven safe, reviewed, and limited to fully verified people. We'll say so plainly here whenever that changes.

One line worth remembering: every unit of $MAIN that exists is a moment someone loved.