Contest Rules & Risks

Everything on merca.earth is designed to stay contestable. That's what makes the map interesting — but it also means you can lose what you own. Read these rules before spending SUI.

Core Rule: Every Place Is Always for Sale

Anyone can buy any place at the current price. The owner cannot refuse. Buying gives you control of the name and visual layer — not a permanent lock. There is no "not for sale" mode.

See Buyout & Premium.

Prices Rise After Every Sale

You register at the base rate (1x). The next buyout is already ~2.95x higher. Each later sale pushes the price further up.

This means: places nobody wants stay cheap. Places people fight over get expensive fast. If you want to hold an important location, be ready to defend it against a rising price.

See Pricing and Buyout & Premium.

Payment Mechanics

Payment-bearing operations route part of the payment to project treasury and part to the hierarchy pool.

The current split is:

• register and expand_unclaimed: 92% treasury, 8% hierarchy pool
• buy_full and acquire_slice: 85% seller, 7% treasury, 8% hierarchy pool

See Fees.

Tax Revenue Expires If You Don't Collect

If you own a parent-level place, you earn tax from transactions on smaller places inside it. But this revenue sits in time-limited buckets — not your wallet. If you don't collect before the expiry epoch, anyone can sweep the funds to the treasury. Gone forever, no recovery.

Collect regularly. See Tax.

Your Neighbors Can Be Aggressive

Two mechanics that are intentionally adversarial:

• Expansion: A neighbor can expand into unclaimed land next to you, limiting your room to grow.
• Slice acquisition: A neighbor can force-buy a piece of your place (subject to geometry rules). You're compensated automatically, but you can't block it.

These are not edge cases. They're core gameplay. See Territory Competition.