whitepaper

abstract

A purely peer-to-peer version of an inside joke would allow appreciation for a podcast host to be sent directly from one listener to another without going through a merchandise store. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party can still print more coins. We propose a solution to the inflation problem using a hard-capped SPL token whose mint authority was cryptographically destroyed at block height of launch. The network timestamps transactions on the Solana blockchain. Shmueli himself was not consulted.

1. introduction

Commerce around podcasts has come to rely almost exclusively on likes, comments, and the occasional super-chat. While the system works well enough for most engagement, it suffers from the inherent weakness that enthusiasm cannot be held in a wallet, transferred to a friend, or checked obsessively at 2am.

What is needed is a token of appreciation based on cryptographic proof instead of parasocial trust. Shmuelicoin (SHMC) is that token. It confers no rights, promises no returns, and does nothing except exist verifiably and forever, which, coincidentally, is also the value proposition of most of the crypto market.

2. technical specification

The supply cap is not a policy. It is a property of the ledger: with the mint authority set to none, no transaction exists that the Solana runtime would accept to create coin one-million-and-one.

3. distribution

Genesis allocation of the 1,000,000 SHMC:

There was no presale, no private round, no venture allocation, and no vesting schedule, because there were no investors, because this is a podcast joke with a block explorer.

4. proof-of-listening

Traditional airdrops distribute tokens to wallets that performed on-chain actions. SHMC introduces proof-of-listening: a distribution mechanism in which eligibility is established by knowing a secret word revealed only during the episode.

1. A secret word is broadcast inside the audio stream
2. The listener commits the word publicly (a comment) and privately (the claim form)
3. Claims are validated off-chain; coins are delivered on-chain

The scheme is trivially sybil-attackable by anyone who watches the episode twice. This is considered a feature: watch time is the point.

5. market structure

SHMC trades, when it trades, on Solana's permissionless automated market makers. Price is determined by the ratio of assets in the liquidity pool, exactly as with any other token on the network. Anyone may buy, sell, or provide liquidity using their own wallet. The website embeds standard swap tooling; it never takes custody of user funds.

6. governance

There is none. There is nothing to govern. The supply cannot change, the holders cannot be frozen, and the roadmap is a text file. This is the most honest governance model in the industry.

7. risk factors

• SHMC may go to zero. Its fair value arguably starts there.
• Liquidity is thin. Large trades will move the price dramatically in either direction.
• The token has no utility, cash flow, or claim on any asset, entity, or person, including Shmueli.
• Digital assets involve technical risk: lost keys are lost coins, and transactions are irreversible.
• Nothing in this document is investment advice. It is barely financial literature.

8. conclusion

We have proposed a system for electronic appreciation without relying on trust. The network is Solana, the supply is one million, the mint key is destroyed, and the host found out live on air. Coins that cannot be printed cannot be debased; jokes that are on-chain cannot be deleted. We believe this is a sufficient contribution to the literature.

# SHMC whitepaper v1.0 · published 2026 · author: Uri Follman