Ledger

The ledger lists every dollar in and out of Freeweights. It is a public file you can read and check.

How the ledger works#

The source is one CSV file per month in the public repository. Each row is one money movement, or one service on a free tier. A free tier is recorded as a row with 0.00, because that is a real fact.

Money in is recorded by type: support, sponsor, Allternit share, credit or in-kind.
Money out is backed by an invoice or receipt reference: hosting, storage, email, code or other.
In-kind capacity (for example a sponsor's disk) is logged at the value the sponsor states, with consent.
Names of supporters appear only with their consent.
Never a credential, token or account secret.

The first rows are zeros: Cloudflare Pages, Workers, D1 and R2, GitHub, and Cloudflare Email Routing, all on free plans at Stage 0.

Why it is tamper-evident#

There is no blockchain and no token. We use a hash chain, the same idea Git uses.

Each row becomes an entry with a sequence number. Each entry holds the hash of the entry before it, and its own hash covers all its fields. Change one amount in an old row and its hash changes. The next entry no longer matches, and so on to the end. The newest hash is written in a small head file, and that file is signed with the Freeweights signing key. Anyone with the public key can check the signature.

This does not stop us from adding rows, and it does not prove a row is true. It proves that the history you see is the history we signed. If we ever rewrite the past, a copy someone saved earlier will not match. Details are in the ledger chain doc.

Hash chainledger/chain.jsonl · 6 entries

Seq	Date	Item	prev_hash	entry_hash
1	2026-11-14	Cloudflare Pages Free plan (Stage 0) out · hosting	00000000…0000	335f37a1…df78
2	2026-11-14	Cloudflare Workers Free plan (Stage 0 read API and redirects) out · hosting	335f37a1…df78	d0861693…bed0
3	2026-11-14	Cloudflare D1 Free plan (Stage 0 database) out · storage	d0861693…bed0	a53a61d0…a1b8
4	2026-11-14	Cloudflare R2 Free tier 10 GB (Stage 0) out · storage	a53a61d0…a1b8	b70295d3…7562
5	2026-11-14	GitHub Public repository (free) out · hosting	b70295d3…7562	1b691c81…2641
6	2026-11-14	Cloudflare Email Routing Free email routes (Stage 0) out · email	1b691c81…2641	6c8154c7…e0b6

Head: seq 6, 6c8154c7…e0b6

Signature checked when this page was built: valid, key 2DC28CC7B26A283B. Links and hashes checked at build: 6 of 6 ok, head matches the last entry. Head updated 2026-11-14 15:14 UTC.

Verify it yourself#

From the public repository:

python3 scripts/verify_ledger.py

It prints PASS or FAIL. On FAIL it names the first entry that does not match. It needs Python 3 and the minisign program. The public key is spec/keys/freeweights-v0.pub (key id 2DC28CC7B26A283B).

You can also do it by hand: the head file is ledger/head.json, its signature is ledger/head.json.minisig, and the check is minisign -Vm ledger/head.json -p spec/keys/freeweights-v0.pub. The chain is ledger/chain.jsonl, one JSON entry per line.

Verify it yourself, from this site

$ curl -O https://freeweights.allternit.com/ledger/chain.jsonl -O https://freeweights.allternit.com/ledger/head.json -O https://freeweights.allternit.com/ledger/head.json.minisig
$ minisign -Vm head.json -P RWQ7KGqyx4zCLXtUFOqvfv8L3g+8fpKJ1FsuxPyOYMF+4KufbUxKq1Oq
$ python3 - <<'PY'
import json, hashlib
prev = "0" * 64
for line in open("chain.jsonl"):
    e = json.loads(line); h = e.pop("entry_hash")
    body = json.dumps(e, sort_keys=True, separators=(",", ":"), ensure_ascii=False).encode()
    assert e["prev_hash"] == prev and hashlib.sha256(body).hexdigest() == h, e["seq"]
    prev = h
print("chain ok, last entry_hash", prev)
print("head says", json.load(open("head.json"))["entry_hash"])
PY

The last two lines must print the same hash, and minisign must say the signature is valid for key 2DC28CC7B26A283B.

Catalog snapshots and takedowns#

A second hash chain, ledger/registry.jsonl, records what the catalog lists and what was removed. It is kept apart from the money chain so the money totals stay exact.

Snapshot. Each signed catalog build takes the sha256 of every published manifest, sorts the pairs (entry id, hash) by id, writes one line <id> <hash> per pair, and hashes those lines into one root. When the root changes, the build adds a snapshot entry to the chain and signs ledger/snapshot.json, which lists every pair. If a manifest is changed or removed later, the root no longer matches the signed one.
Takedown. Every removal adds one entry: the date, the entry id and a reason class (for example copyright). No names, no addresses, no report text.

The head of this chain is signed like the money chain: ledger/registry-head.json and its .minisig.

Latest snapshot: 3908851ee7c82dca3371bd117679cbbac2d9a3ca025b0a1a425472a6c5f3fe8e
Manifests: 6362
Recorded: 2026-11-15 08:04 UTC, registry seq 4
Signatures: snapshot valid, registry head valid (key 2DC28CC7B26A283B)
Registry chain: 4 entries: 4 snapshots, 0 takedowns; links and hashes ok
Files: snapshot.json · .minisig · registry.jsonl · registry-head.json · .minisig

Check a snapshot yourself

$ curl -O https://freeweights.allternit.com/ledger/snapshot.json -O https://freeweights.allternit.com/ledger/snapshot.json.minisig
$ minisign -Vm snapshot.json -P RWQ7KGqyx4zCLXtUFOqvfv8L3g+8fpKJ1FsuxPyOYMF+4KufbUxKq1Oq
$ python3 scripts/verify_ledger.py --snapshot-against https://freeweights.allternit.com

The last command, run from the public repository, downloads every manifest the snapshot names, recomputes the root and checks it, the signatures and the chain.

Costs by stage#

These are plan figures for what each stage can cost per month. They are estimates, not invoices.

Stage	What is added	Cost a month
0	Coordinator only: Pages, one Worker, a database, 10 GB object store, public repo	0 USD
1	Tracker, hub server, up to 1 TB	0 to 15 USD
2	6 TB web-seed origin	42 to 90 USD
3	50 TB	350 to 750 USD
4	500 TB on donated mirrors	0 if donated, or 3,500 to 7,500 USD if paid

Funding goals#

Goal 1: Stage 1: Tracker and hub45 USD, 3 months x 15 USD; or a verified free VM

0 USD of 45 USD so far

Goal 2: Stage 2: Origin126 to 270 USD, prepaid

0 USD of 126 USD so far

Goal 3: Stage 3: Storage server1,050 to 2,250 USD, prepaid, or a sponsor or credits

0 USD of 1,050 USD so far

A stage starts when three months are prepaid or pledged in writing. The raised amounts below are the real figures in ledger/goals.json. At this version they are all 0.

Goal	Unlocks	Amount
1: Tracker and hub (Stage 1)	Our tracker, hub server, seeds; up to 1 TB hosted. A free VM or a seedbox with written clearance can do this too.	45 USD (3 months at 15)
2: Origin (Stage 2)	A web-seed origin on Backblaze B2 behind Cloudflare, about 6 TB. Permissive models move to Hosted. Uploads open.	126 to 270 USD, prepaid
3: Storage server (Stage 3)	One storage server or object storage, 50 TB. Community repos and more quants.	1,050 to 2,250 USD, prepaid, or a sponsor or credits

Hosting is prepaid before December 31 so that money in and the costs it covers land in the same year.

Support#

Support is not open yet. There is no payment link. It opens after a separate bank account, the support terms page, an accountant's written view and a Minnesota charitable-solicitation check are done.

When it opens, this line goes with every support link: Support goes to Allternit LLC. It is not a charitable gift and is not tax-deductible.

Support is applied first to the running costs in this ledger. It buys no badge, ranking, placement, access or early features. You may ask for a refund within 30 days.