Competition Rules

1. Promoter

The Promoter is Baldomero Castilla, trading as 50 Million Messages. Contact: founder@50millionmessages.com. Business address: 2 14 Zenith Avenue, Chermside.

2. Competition format

The winner-selection mechanism is participant voting, not a random draw and not a discretionary choice by the Promoter. Subject to these Rules, the winning eligible message is the eligible message with the highest number of valid votes after voting closes and the final audit and eligibility process is completed.

3. Two phases

Phase 1 is the message-collection phase. Paid publication entries are accepted until Message #50,000,000 is validly published. Voting entitlements may be earned during Phase 1 but cannot be used during that phase. Phase 2 begins when Message #50,000,000 is validly published. New paid entries close and the configured voting period begins.

4. Eligible participants and jurisdictions

A prize participant must be at least 18 years old, legally capable of participating and eligible under these Rules and applicable law. Prize eligibility may be more restrictive than availability of the separate paid message-publication service. Current configured prize-eligible country codes: AD,AE,AF,AG,AI,AL,AM,AO,AQ,AR,AS,AT,AU,AW,AX,AZ,BA,BB,BD,BE,BF,BG,BH,BI,BJ,BL,BM,BN,BO,BQ,BR,BS,BT,BV,BW,BY,BZ,CA,CC,CD,CF,CG,CH,CI,CK,CL,CM,CN,CO,CR,CU,CV,CW,CX,CY,CZ,DE,DJ,DK,DM,DO,DZ,EC,EE,EG,EH,ER,ES,ET,FI,FJ,FK,FM,FO,FR,GA,GB,GD,GE,GF,GG,GH,GI,GL,GM,GN,GP,GQ,GR,GS,GT,GU,GW,GY,HK,HM,HN,HR,HT,HU,ID,IE,IL,IM,IN,IO,IQ,IR,IS,IT,JE,JM,JO,JP,KE,KG,KH,KI,KM,KN,KP,KR,KW,KY,KZ,LA,LB,LC,LI,LK,LR,LS,LT,LU,LV,LY,MA,MC,MD,ME,MF,MG,MH,MK,ML,MM,MN,MO,MP,MQ,MR,MS,MT,MU,MV,MW,MX,MY,MZ,NA,NC,NE,NF,NG,NI,NL,NO,NP,NR,NU,NZ,OM,PA,PE,PF,PG,PH,PK,PL,PM,PN,PR,PS,PT,PW,PY,QA,RE,RO,RS,RU,RW,SA,SB,SC,SD,SE,SG,SH,SI,SJ,SK,SL,SM,SN,SO,SR,SS,ST,SV,SX,SY,SZ,TC,TD,TF,TG,TH,TJ,TK,TL,TM,TN,TO,TR,TT,TV,TW,TZ,UA,UG,UM,US,UY,UZ,VA,VC,VE,VG,VI,VN,VU,WF,WS,YE,YT,ZA,ZM,ZW.

5. Local law and prohibited jurisdictions

Participation is void where prohibited or restricted by applicable law. By participating, a participant represents that their participation is lawful in their jurisdiction of residence and from the jurisdiction from which they participate. The Promoter may block, restrict or exclude a jurisdiction where participation, payment, voting or prize eligibility is prohibited, restricted or subject to requirements that have not been satisfied. This clause does not transfer to a participant an obligation that applicable law places on the Promoter.

6. Excluded persons and conflicts of interest

The Promoter is not eligible to win. Also ineligible are the Promoter's spouse or de facto partner, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, persons ordinarily living in the same household, persons materially involved in operating, administering, moderating or auditing the competition, the independent result auditor, and any person with a material pre-existing personal, employment, contractual, financial or business relationship that the independent auditor reasonably determines would compromise or reasonably call into question the independence of the award. Ordinary customer contact, social-media following or incidental contact alone does not create a prohibited relationship.

7. Entry and publication service

A qualifying purchase pays for publication of one numbered public message. Where the competition is enabled and the purchase and participant are eligible, that qualifying purchase also creates one voting entitlement. Multiple genuine purchases are permitted unless applicable mandatory law requires otherwise. Each payment must be valid, authorised and successfully captured.

8. Voting entitlement

Each qualifying voting entitlement may be used once during Phase 2 for an eligible message belonging to another participant. A voting entitlement cannot vote for its own source message. The platform also blocks voting for another message purchased with the same private email address. Deliberately circumventing these controls through false contact details, multiple identities, automation or technical manipulation may result in disqualification.

9. Multiple purchases

Multiple genuine purchases by one person may create multiple messages and multiple voting entitlements. Each voting entitlement is independently subject to these Rules. The competition therefore measures support expressed through valid participant votes; the Promoter does not represent it as a random draw or as a discretionary literary judging process.

10. Invalid activity

Stolen or unauthorised payment methods, fabricated payment confirmations, bots, vote manipulation, coordinated fraud, database or API manipulation, chargeback abuse, sanctions evasion, identity misrepresentation, collusion intended to defeat these Rules and attempts to defeat eligibility or security controls are prohibited.

11. Refunds, reversals and disputes

A fully refunded, reversed, fraudulent or successfully disputed purchase becomes invalid for prize purposes. Its source message may become prize-ineligible and its voting entitlement may be revoked. Votes associated with entries or messages that become invalid may be adjusted according to the authoritative competition records.

12. Entry closing condition

New paid entries close when Message #50,000,000 is validly published. Message numbers are allocated by the platform and are not reused. The US$1,000,000 prize is conditional on the competition reaching the stated closing condition and satisfying applicable legal requirements.

13. Voting period

Voting opens only after Message #50,000,000 is validly published and remains open for the configured voting period, currently intended to be 30 days. The authoritative closing timestamp recorded by the production system controls, subject to applicable mandatory law and any lawfully required suspension or variation.

14. Ranking and tie-break

Public rankings are provisional until final audit. After voting closes, eligible messages are ranked by valid vote count from highest to lowest. If two or more eligible messages have the same valid vote count, the lower permanent message number ranks higher. This tie-break is predetermined and does not involve a random draw or a discretionary choice by the Promoter.

15. Candidate selection without private identity

The first-place candidate is determined from the authoritative competition records using message eligibility, valid vote count and the disclosed tie-break. The participant's private legal identity is not an input into the ranking algorithm. The Promoter must not manually substitute another person for the system-determined candidate.

16. Final audit manifest

After voting closes, the platform's final-audit procedure reconciles the authoritative voting counters and voting entitlements, identifies the highest-ranked eligible message and creates a canonical audit manifest. A SHA-256 hash of that manifest may be retained and published so that the manifest used for the audit can later be compared with the recorded evidence.

17. Independent result audit

Before a candidate becomes a verified winner, the latest final ranking must be reviewed by an independent auditor, scrutineer, accountant, lawyer or other suitably independent professional appointed for this purpose. The independent review is intended to verify the ranking mechanism, relevant competition records and the identity of the winning message before the prize is treated as finally awarded.

18. Audit rounds and late adjustments

A late verified refund, reversal, successful dispute, fraud finding, moderation decision or other valid disqualification may require the final ranking to be recalculated. If that happens before the prize is finally verified and paid, a new audit round may supersede the earlier candidate. The audit history is retained.

19. Potential winner verification

Only after a message has been identified as the current audited candidate will the private participant information associated with that purchase be used for final winner verification. The potential winner may be required to provide evidence of legal identity, age, residence, eligibility, payment ownership, sanctions status, tax information and any other information reasonably required to lawfully pay the prize.

20. Independence declaration

The potential winner may be required to sign a declaration confirming eligibility and the absence of a prohibited relationship or conflict of interest. The Promoter may also execute a corresponding declaration. Where reasonably appropriate, a statutory declaration or equivalent formal declaration may be requested. Private declaration documents are not intended for public publication; cryptographic hashes or audit references may be retained as evidence.

21. Ineligible candidate

If the current candidate is legally ineligible, disqualified, unable to complete required verification, subject to a prohibited relationship or otherwise unable lawfully to receive the prize, that candidate does not become the winner. The ranking may then be recalculated and the next eligible highest-ranked message considered through a new audit round.

22. Prize

Subject to these Rules, applicable law and final verification, the verified winner receives US$1,000,000. Prize payment is not automatically triggered by the website. Payment occurs only after the independent result audit and the required identity, eligibility and conflict checks have been completed.

23. Taxes

The winner is responsible for personal taxes, duties, declarations and other obligations relating to receipt of the prize, except to the extent applicable law requires the Promoter to withhold, report or pay an amount.

24. Integrity and audit trail

The Promoter will preserve records reasonably required to audit the outcome, including permanent message numbers, payment references, voting entitlements, vote-state changes, refunds, disputes, moderation and disqualification records, final-audit rounds and winner-verification records. Database and payment-provider records, rather than browser-side counters or screenshots, are the authoritative operational records.

25. Public prize proof

After lawful payment of the prize, the Promoter intends to publish an official result page containing appropriate evidence of the result. This may include the winning message number, valid vote count, final-audit manifest hash, independent audit status or certificate, verification status, prize-payment date and a redacted payment proof. Passport numbers, full bank details, private addresses, identity documents and other sensitive verification material will not be intentionally published.

26. Security incident, legal change or force majeure

A material security incident, processor outage, legal prohibition, regulator direction or event outside reasonable control may require a pause or other lawful action to protect the integrity of the competition. Any cancellation, extension, variation, refund or other remedy must comply with applicable mandatory law and any required regulatory approval.

27. Governing law

These Rules are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia, while preserving mandatory laws and regulatory requirements that apply in an enabled participant jurisdiction.

28. Contact

Competition questions: founder@50millionmessages.com.