The Vertical Challenge is where the public stops being an audience and becomes a structured design force.
Submissions are not freeform. Each proposal is forced into a canonical template so it can be clustered, deduplicated, compared, and moved into engineering without noise.
Full Design: A complete vertical proposal. Thesis, logic chain, arithmetic, platform interfaces, feedstock sourcing, output streams, failure modes, circularity, governance. This is what wins the slot.
CapEx / Economics: You've seen a proposed design (submitted by someone else or your own earlier submission) and you can sharpen the numbers. Cost drivers, unit economics, scaling path, bottlenecks.
Circularity: You've seen a proposed design and you can close a loop. Heat recovery, byproduct routing, waste-as-feedstock, emissions elimination. Show where material or energy leaves the system and how to keep it inside.
Your submission
Charter constraints (must all be true)
No debt dependency
Bound to the Charter logic (constraints are non-negotiable)
Energy basis is fixed: 0.08 cents/kWh internal transfer price
Must define inputs, outputs, dependencies, and failure modes
Must be standardizable and scalable, not a one-off startup
No identity surface required
If any box is false, the submission is invalid and should be rejected.
Your submission receipts
Receipts are stored locally. Nothing is transmitted.