For the Press

Everything you need to write this up, including the parts that make us look bad. Take what you like; no permission required.

In one sentence

LARGESS is a website where wealthy people send money to a stranger, receive absolutely nothing, and are ranked publicly for it.

In one paragraph

In 2008 Apple removed an app called I Am Rich: it cost $999.99, did nothing at all, and sold eight copies in a day before the gatekeepers decided the rich could not be trusted to spend their own money on nothing. LARGESS is its heir, rebuilt on the open web where nobody can remove it. Tributes start at $100 and go up. Givers are ranked on a public Ledger; the largest lifetime giver holds The Crown, which any greater sum can take. A reversed payment is struck from the Ledger and inscribed permanently in a public Debt Roll. Nothing is sold, nothing is delivered, and every word of that is disclosed before anyone can pay.

The facts, unflattering ones included

Money raised to date: nothing. The Ledger is empty and the Crown is unclaimed. We would rather you print that than have you discover it. Who keeps the money: one independent creator, named on every receipt — no company, no foundation, no cause. What a giver receives: nothing, disclosed several times before payment. Is it legal: unconditional gifts between consenting adults are legal, ancient, and rarely this well documented. Is it a charity: no, and it never claims to be — donations here are not tax-deductible anywhere, and if you want your money to do good this is a worse option than almost any other.

The questions you were going to ask anyway

"Isn't this a scam?" A scam requires a lie. Find one on the site: givers are told they receive nothing, told who keeps the money, and told the arithmetic. Unusual is not the same as deceptive.

"Aren't you exploiting people?" The entry price is $100 and the audience is people for whom $100 is a rounding error. If someone who cannot afford it gives anyway, that is a failure and we would rather refund it than keep it.

"What stops chargebacks?" Nothing technical, and we say so. A reversed payment is simply recorded — alias, sum, date — in the Debt Roll. Social memory instead of a lock that cannot exist.

"How much have you made?" Ask again in a month; the number is on the site and it will not be flattered.

The sister project

The same creator runs DONA, the same idea inverted: eight billion people, one dollar each, and a table on the page proving the goal is unreachable. If your angle is class rather than absurdity, the pair is the story.

Assets

Share image: og.png (1200×630) · App icon and screenshots on request · Android app: direct download, also submitted to Google Play. No logo usage restrictions; do not invent a quote and we will not send you one unasked.

Contact

One human, one address, usually fast: contact@qubitumai.com. Happy to be interviewed, happy to be mocked, uninterested in being sanitised.