Terms of service

01 Overview

What me.ochk.io is

me.ochk.io is an identity you use to sign in across participating sites ("integrators"). When an integrator records a billable event for an action you authorize, a share of the fee flows back to you in sats. Your identity is anchored in Bitcoin, verifiable offline, and portable across the OrangeCheck family.

me.ochk.io is not a bank, exchange, broker, or wallet provider. It is an identity and reputation service with an attached cashback mechanism. During bring-up OrangeCheck operates every role in that mechanism, including custody of the balance it pays you. That is a stage, not the design — see the custody section below for what holds today and what replaces it.

02 Accounts & identity

Two sign-in paths

You may create an identity two ways: BIP-322 (you sign with your own Bitcoin wallet — full self-custody of your signing key) or email-OTP (a one-time code; you hold no key of your own, so OrangeCheck holds what you accrue during bring-up). Both produce a stable, opaque did:oc identifier. No password is ever stored.

You are responsible for the security of the wallet, device, email account, or recovery mnemonic associated with your identity. Anyone with your keys or recovery factor can act as you. OrangeCheck cannot recover an account, reverse a sign-in, or restore a lost key or mnemonic.

03 Eligibility

• You must be at least 13 (or the age of digital consent in your jurisdiction)
• You must have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract
• You must not be prohibited from using the Service under applicable law
• You must comply with all applicable laws and regulations

04 Earning sats

Cashback on billable events

05 Custody & graduation

OrangeCheck-held during bring-up · federation custody and self-custody exit next

Custody depends on how you sign in, and the honest answer differs today from the design.

If you sign in with BIP-322, you hold your own keys. They never leave your device. OrangeCheck verifies signatures and relays envelopes; it cannot move your funds. That is true now and does not change.

If you sign in with email, OrangeCheck currently holds the key that pays you. The design is that a Fedimint federation — run by independent guardian operators, not OrangeCheck — holds funds under a threshold scheme, and you may graduate to full self-custody at any time. That federation does not exist yet: there are no independent guardians today, and during bring-up the signing key for the paying rail is operated by OrangeCheck. So for email users, during this period, OrangeCheck is a custodian and the party that moves the money.

We state that plainly rather than describing the destination as though it were the present. The live status of the paying rail — which posture is in force, what bounds it, and what has actually settled — is published at /custody and machine-readable at /api/federations. Those surfaces are computed from the system rather than written by hand, so they cannot drift from this document the way a fixed sentence would.

06 Fees, payouts & taxes

07 No KYC, no PII

me.ochk.io does not perform Know-Your-Customer checks and does not require your legal name, government ID, or physical address. Sybil resistance is achieved through protocol composition — BIP-322 sat-bond attestation, paid-action history, and integrator-defined gates — not identity verification. You must not use me.ochk.io to evade a KYC, AML, or sanctions obligation that applies to you elsewhere.

08 Abuse, sybil resistance & rate limits

me.ochk.io publishes its abuse limits openly so legitimate users can see they are well below them. The canonical, current values are on the /security page. Activity that exceeds a review threshold may be held for human review; activity assessed as sybil farming, wash-trading, or collusion between an integrator and a user may have earnings withheld or reversed and the identity suspended.

• Do not operate multiple identities to multiply new-account bonuses
• Do not collude with an integrating site to manufacture billable events
• Do not script or automate actions to inflate earnings
• Do not misrepresent a real user action as authorized when it was not

09 Acceptable use

Permitted · prohibited

Prohibited — illegal

• Any unlawful purpose
• Violating any applicable laws or regulations
• Fraud, money laundering, or financial crimes
• Infringing intellectual property rights

Prohibited — harmful

• Harass, threaten, or harm others
• Impersonate any person or entity
• Misrepresent your identity or affiliation
• Assert control of a Bitcoin address, identity, or handle you do not control

Prohibited — technical abuse

• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or its servers
• Attempt unauthorized access to any account, system, or data
• Automated scraping or harvesting without permission
• Introduce viruses, malware, or malicious code
• Circumvent security features or rate limits

We reserve the right to investigate and act against anyone who violates these prohibitions — including terminating access and reporting to law enforcement.

10 Integrators & relying parties

Sites that integrate me.ochk.io receive a per-integrator scoped identifier for you, not your master identity — they cannot correlate you across sites unless you explicitly grant a scope. Integrators independently decide whether and how to trust your identity, including whether to admit, gate, or reject you. OrangeCheck is not a party to, and accepts no liability for, an integrator’s decisions or an integrator’s own terms, pricing, or conduct.

11 Intellectual property

OrangeCheck's rights

The Service and its content (excluding user-generated content) are protected by copyright, trademark, patent, and other IP laws — including the OrangeCheck name, logos, branding, site design, software, code, algorithms, and documentation.

Your license

You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service subject to these Terms. You may not sell, sublicense, or use the Service to build a competing product.

Your content

You retain ownership of content you submit (feedback, support requests, integration material). You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to operate and improve the Service using that content. You are responsible for your content.

Open source

OrangeCheck protocol specifications and the @orangecheck/* packages are released under open-source licenses (MIT unless stated otherwise). Those portions are governed by their own license terms; these Terms govern the hosted service.

12 Disclaimers & warranties

As-is · regulatory status

Nothing me.ochk.io provides is financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. me.ochk.io does not guarantee any level of earnings; cashback depends on integrator activity outside OrangeCheck’s control.

Regulatory status

13 Limitation of liability

Maximum legal cap

Excluded damages

This exclusion covers, without limitation: direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, punitive, reliance, and cover damages; and loss of Bitcoin, sats, cryptocurrency, tokens, assets, funds, private keys, seed phrases, passwords, data, profits, revenue, goodwill, reputation, business opportunity, anticipated savings, or use.

Hard cap

If, notwithstanding the above, a court of competent jurisdiction finds OrangeCheck liable to you, our aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or related to the Service or these Terms is capped at the greater of (a) US$100 or (b) the total amount you actually paid OrangeCheck in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Essential purpose · jurisdictional floor

These limitations form an essential basis of the bargain and apply even if a limited remedy fails of its essential purpose. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions; there, the limitations apply to the maximum extent permitted by law and the remainder of these Terms stays in full force.

14 Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless OrangeCheck and its affiliates from any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from:

• Your use or misuse of the Service
• Your violation of these Terms
• Your violation of any law or regulation
• Your violation of any third-party rights
• Content you submit or share
• Your negligence or willful misconduct

15 Termination

Your right: stop using me.ochk.io at any time; you may delete your identity from /me/settings. Our right: suspend or terminate access with or without cause, including for abuse or legal risk. Deleting your identity does not settle a balance OrangeCheck owes you, and during bring-up there is no sweep to self-custody to run first — no federation is bound. If your balance is above zero, bind a payout destination and instruct a cash-out before you delete, or contact us. Hashes anchored to Bitcoin and commitments published to Nostr are immutable and cannot be deleted by OrangeCheck; neither names you. The disclaimer, liability, indemnification, governing-law, and dispute provisions survive.

16 Changes

To the service

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service at any time, with or without notice. We are not liable for any modification, suspension, or discontinuation.

To these terms

• We will update the "last updated" date
• For material changes, we will provide notice on the website (and by email where we hold one)
• Changes become effective when posted
• Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance

17 Dispute resolution

Informal → arbitration

Informal resolution

Before filing a claim, contact us at hello@ochk.io to attempt to resolve the dispute informally.

Arbitration · class-action waiver · jury waiver

• Administered by the American Arbitration Association under its then-current Commercial or Consumer Arbitration Rules (whichever applies)
• Seat of arbitration: Wilmington, Delaware, United States — or, at either party’s election, conducted remotely by video
• Single neutral arbitrator; decision final and binding, enforceable in any court of competent jurisdiction
• The arbitrator — not any court — decides threshold questions of arbitrability, including the validity and scope of this clause

Exceptions to arbitration

• Small-claims court actions (if eligible and filed individually)
• Injunctive or equitable relief to protect intellectual property or confidential information
• Any claim that cannot lawfully be arbitrated under applicable law

One-year limit to bring claims

To the fullest extent permitted by law, any claim arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms must be commenced within one (1) year after it accrues, or it is permanently barred.

Opt-out of arbitration

You may opt out by sending written notice to hello@ochk.io within 30 days of first using the Service, including your name, the date you first used the Service, and a clear statement that you wish to opt out. Opting out does not affect the class-action or jury-trial waivers.

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, and, where applicable, the U.S. Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. §§ 1–16). For users in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, mandatory consumer-protection laws of your country of residence may apply and nothing here overrides those rights.

Entity of record

18 Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement. these terms + the privacy policy are the entire agreement and supersede any prior agreement on the same subject
• Severability. if a provision is invalid or unenforceable it is severed and the remainder stays in full force
• Waiver. failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of the right to enforce it later
• Assignment. you may not assign these terms without our consent; we may assign freely in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets
• No agency. nothing here creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, agency, or fiduciary relationship
• Force majeure. we are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control — including network failures, Nostr relay outages, Bitcoin network conditions, government action, or natural disaster
• Notices. to you via email, the Service, or the website; to us at hello@ochk.io
• Electronic acceptance. your use of the Service is electronic acceptance of these terms under applicable e-signature laws

Sanctions, export controls, and prohibited jurisdictions

You represent and warrant that you are not, and are not acting on behalf of, any person or entity that is:

• Located in, organized under the laws of, or ordinarily resident in any country or territory subject to comprehensive U.S., U.N., E.U., or U.K. sanctions
• Identified on the U.S. Treasury OFAC Specially Designated Nationals list, Consolidated Sanctions List, or any other U.S. government restricted-party list
• Identified on any U.K. HMT, E.U., U.N., or other applicable consolidated sanctions list
• Otherwise subject to a sanctions, export-control, or anti-terrorism restriction that would prohibit your use of the Service

You agree to comply with all applicable export-control laws, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. A breach of this section is a material breach of these Terms.