Where food is grown, where health is restored, where labor is owned.

No. SEED is a utility token. It is not a security, an investment contract, or a financial instrument. It conveys no equity, no profit rights, and no expectation of appreciation. We do not market SEED for trading and we do not promote it as a financial product.

What it does: coordinates participation, records contribution, and unlocks access to defined Project programs. What it doesn't do: pay yield, distribute dividends, or behave as an asset class.

Because the ledger creates accountability that informal fundraising cannot. Every issuance is tied to a verifiable event. Every retirement is recorded. Every dollar can be traced from contributor to program to outcome. The token is an audit trail dressed as a community instrument.

If we could achieve the same transparency with a donation jar and a clipboard, we would. We can't.

They are sister initiatives that share the One Seed name and mission but operate as separate things. The One Seed Project is a founder-led community initiative — it designed and issued SEED, operates the treasury, and runs the programs you see on this site. It does not currently have a formal legal entity; establishing one is a near-term priority.

One Seed Foundation Inc. is a sister nonprofit corporation, separately governed, with federal tax-exempt status pending. It pursues its own charitable programs. The two organizations are not the same legal person and do not share governance. Any future flow of funds or services between them will be documented under formal agreements and disclosed in the Project's Quarterly Transparency Report.

Practical implication: acquiring or using SEED is participation in the Project, not a donation to the nonprofit. SEED participation does not produce a tax deduction. If you want to support the nonprofit directly, contact One Seed Foundation Inc. through its own channels and consult your tax advisor.

Four governance layers operate as documented commitments of the Project: a leadership layer holding legal authority for treasury custody and program approvals; the Community Quarterback Council holding relational authority; Program Committees holding domain authority over Sports, Agriculture, Scholarship, and Wellness; and a Transparency Office responsible for reporting. No layer can override another by informal authority.

By policy, no fewer than 60% of net funds raised in any cycle flow directly to youth, scholarship, or program services. Administrative overhead is capped at 20%. Because the Project currently operates without a separate legal entity, these are operational commitments of the founders and core contributors rather than enforceable obligations of a registered entity — a fact disclosed in Section 9.6 of the whitepaper.

Seven structural elements support the utility classification: a fixed pre-minted supply with no future mint authority, event-based treasury distribution tied to verifiable activity, no profit or yield rights, no equity claims, burn-on-redemption mechanics, capped voting weight, and public on-chain-verifiable allocation reporting. The whitepaper documents each.

If regulatory guidance evolves and adjustments are required, the Project will comply rather than circumvent. We design for durability, not loopholes.

Because the model has to work somewhere first. Charleston is small enough to be accountable, large enough to matter, and grounded in the things that the Project exists to support: farms, families, schools, and Friday-night lights. The framework is engineered to be replicable, but the founding chapter is deliberately local.

Every program has an in-person counterpart. You can sponsor an acre with a printed certificate, attend the harvest dinner with a paper ticket, donate to the Scholar Bond pool by check, or volunteer time toward the equipment co-op. The on-chain record is the audit trail. The community is the program.

Administrative overhead is capped at 20% of net funds raised by Project policy. The remaining 80% flows to programs. Operating costs cover transparency reporting, treasury custody, and infrastructure — all published in the quarterly report.