Fine print
Short version: you pay $1, you get one numbered square on the Wall in the color you pick. That’s the whole product.
What this is
A novelty website that sells one thing: a numbered square on a public online wall (the Million Dollar Wall), for $1, in a color you choose. The experiment is seeing how many people will buy one. It isn’t a charity, a fundraiser for a cause, an investment, a raffle or a giveaway, and your $1 isn’t tax-deductible.
About the big claims
The Million Dollar Wall is named after the Million Dollar Homepage, not its value. It isn’t worth a million dollars, there’s no million-dollar goal, and a square will never be worth more than the $1 you paid. Also, “the greatest experiment in human history” is our opinion, not peer-reviewed science.
What you get, and when
Your purchase is fulfilled when Stripe confirms the payment and your numbered square is added to the Wall. That usually takes a few seconds. You also get your own page at /n/your-number and a receipt image to share.
If you’re charged but your square isn’t created because of a technical error, email kianjmorton@gmail.com and we’ll either create the square or refund the $1.
How long squares last
Squares stay on the Wall for as long as the site runs. We may remove or paint over squares when that’s necessary for abuse, legal or technical reasons.
Where the dollar goes
To the person running the experiment, through Stripe. Card processing on a $1 payment costs about 33¢ (2.9% + 30¢), so roughly 67¢ of each dollar actually arrives. The homepage shows both numbers so nobody has to do the math. Fees aren’t returned on refunds, so those count against the total too.
How the counter works
The number only goes up when Stripe confirms a payment. Pressing the button does nothing to it. Each confirmed payment gets the next participant number, and numbers are never reused. If a payment is refunded or charged back, it stops counting, so the counter can sit a little below the highest number.
The counter counts payments, not people. We can’t tell who’s who, and we don’t try.
Every payment also gets a square on the Wall. You pick its color before paying (or right after, on the thanks page). Once it’s painted, it’s locked. Only colors, no words or pictures. If people team up to draw something nasty, those squares get painted over in gray.
You can also attach one message to your square, picked from a fixed list. There’s no free typing, so nobody can write anything on anyone’s square.
The leaderboard
Your browser makes up a random player code the first time you visit, and the leaderboard shows it as a silly name like “Sneaky Pickle”. It isn’t linked to your card, email or anything else about you, and the code itself is never shown. Clear your browser or switch devices and you get a new name.
“Most squares” counts at most 5 squares per person per day, so nobody can just buy the top spot. “Top recruiters” counts people who bought through your share link (buying through your own link doesn’t count). Please don’t spend money you need on this. It’s a joke.
Changed your mind?
Email kianjmorton@gmail.com within 30 days with the date and the last four digits of your card, and you’ll get your dollar back. Your number stops counting and your square is retired.
Privacy
Stripe handles your card and email; this site never receives your card number. Our database keeps an anonymous participant number, Stripe’s reference for the payment, the amount, the fee, a timestamp, the color and message you pick for your square, and your browser’s random player code. No names, no emails, no cookies, no ad trackers.
For the stats section, it also keeps the rough location Cloudflare already sees when you press the button: country, state or region, and time zone. Never your city, address or GPS. That’s only ever shown as totals (“12 states”) or anonymous facts (“someone paid at 3:12am their time”), never next to a number.
Visits are counted as daily totals: how many, and which site sent them. To stop abuse, your IP address is turned into a scrambled code that’s thrown away within minutes.
One request
Only use a card you’re allowed to use.
Who runs this
Kian Morton. Contact: kianjmorton@gmail.com.