How does Pieces work?

A creator publishes locked content with a funding goal, a deadline, and a kickback percentage. Bonders stake money to stand behind it, and backers pool money toward the goal. If the goal is met, the content unlocks publicly, the creator is paid, and bonders earn the kickback. If the deadline passes short of the goal, backers are refunded plus a share of the forfeited bonds.

What happens to my money if a Piece does not fund?

You get your full backing back plus a bonus, paid from the stakes that bonders forfeited. On Pieces, backing a Piece that fails to fund returns more than you put in.

Where is the money held while a Piece is live?

All funds are held in smart contracts on Base. Pieces covers the gas, and creators and backers keep custody of their wallets at all times.

What kind of content can be published on Pieces?

Digital content: music, art, writing, photography, design, video, code, and other files. The content stays sealed until it funds, so it cannot leak or be pirated in advance.

How Pieces Works: Creators, Backers, and Bonders

On Pieces, a creator locks content behind a funding goal, bonders stake money to stand behind it, and backers fund it. If it funds, the content unlocks and the creator gets paid. If not, backers get their money back plus a bonus.

Pieces is crowdfunding built on a dominant assurance contract, which means backers come out ahead either way: they unlock the content they wanted, or they get their money back plus a bonus. Here is the whole mechanism, step by step.

The three roles

Creators publish the work. A creator locks a piece of digital content (music, art, writing, photography, design, video) behind a funding goal, a deadline, and a kickback percentage.
Bonders stake confidence. A bonder puts real money on the line to stand behind a creator before the outcome is known.
Backers fund release. Backers pool money toward the goal to unlock the content for everyone.

The lifecycle of a Piece

A creator locks a Piece. The content is sealed. It does not exist publicly until it funds, so it cannot leak or be copied in advance.
Bonders stake. Their stake is a public signal that people with money at risk expect the Piece to fund. It is also the source of the backer bonus if it does not.
Backers back it. Backing is capped so the goal is never exceeded.
It funds, or it does not.
- If backing reaches the goal, the Piece funds instantly. The content is released publicly, the creator is paid, and bonders get their stake back plus the kickback, paid out of the creator’s earnings.
- If the deadline passes short of the goal, the content stays sealed forever. Backers are refunded their full amount plus a pro-rata share of the forfeited bonds. That extra payment is the refund bonus.

Why it is built this way

Ordinary crowdfunding punishes early backers with uncertainty, so the rational move is to wait and see. That hesitation is the free-rider problem, and it quietly kills campaigns that everyone wanted to succeed. By paying backers a bonus when a Piece fails, backing becomes the smart move no matter what happens.

For creators, the flip side is just as important: the work is paid for before it is public. A sealed Piece cannot be pirated, and a funded Piece pays the creator the moment the goal is hit, not per stream or per ad impression.

The fine print that matters

All funds are held in smart contracts on Base, and Pieces covers the gas.
Creators and backers keep custody of their wallets at all times.
When a Piece funds, the content is released publicly. Backers helped bring it into the world, and the world gets to keep it.
If a Piece does not fund, the content is never released, not even to the creator’s followers. Sealed means sealed.

Want the theory behind the mechanism? Start with what a dominant assurance contract is, or see how Pieces compares to Kickstarter.