K.3 Money Beside the Introduction

The introduction carries no price. Nobody in the middle earns more while two people have not yet met. Most of this manual assumes you will charge for the thing you make, and a Kindling business, as the project describes one, does not charge for the thing the protocol makes. It charges beside it, and the only shapes of that on record are the Kindling library's, every one of them invented.

No real Kindling business exists yet. On October 4, 2026 the sites said "Nothing runs on it at TranquilTech yet," and none of the library's organizations is real.

The rule, in the project's words

§1.3 puts it among the specification's non-goals: Kindling does not define "a chargeable surface at the connection layer." The protocol site glosses it under the same section number: "The protocol defines no chargeable surface between two people who want to meet. That is a stated non-goal, not a pricing decision." Chapter K.1 separates non-goals from MUSTs. This one is the line every business on Kindling is built beside.

The How page states it as Article VIII, "Sustainability without extraction": "Nobody pays to be introduced, anywhere. Here is where the money comes from instead." Three items follow.

Figures checked October 2026.

The sources say more than the page. GOVERNANCE.md lists more than registry hosting under what TranquilTech funds for the first year: "the public registry's hosting, the project's domain (kindling.foundation), the spec's documentation site, and the deliverability of the handshake email infrastructure."

And no v0.2 draft text is in the public repository. The words behind "can never be turned into a paywall" come from the launch essay ("Both happen only after a connection has worked, and both are voluntary, so neither can become a paywall") and from docs/FRAMEWORK.md, which describes gratitude as "voluntary and post-result, never gated and never required." The framework also names a second planned surface the sites do not show, "The Hall of Flame," "A one-time contribution" after a partnership has formed. The launch essay says of both: "Neither exists yet."

Build on the framework's principle: "any economic relationship in Kindling happens after a connection has succeeded, never before, and the connection layer itself stays free."

The shapes the library offers

The Kindling library is the only catalog of a Kindling business that exists, and it is invented from end to end. Each organization and app is labeled invented on its own site and carries a line on money. Every row below is invented by the Kindling sites and quoted from them; none is a real organization.

One real organization sits on the same page, labeled real: Mycelial, made by TranquilTech. Its line reads "Communities that want hosting pay for it, and small groups without revenue can run it themselves for free." Mycelial was "Opening by invitation" on the research date, and its Kindling version "ships in early 2027."

Read down the right-hand column and the rule turns concrete. Nobody pays to be listed, to be introduced, to see who said yes, to be shown first, or to put an ask on top. Nobody takes a referral fee or a cut of what follows. Nobody sells the list.

The middle column is the other half. Every payment buys something that stands on its own: a class, a membership, a dinner, a ticket, hosting, a desk, a grant's program. Revenue sits beside the introduction, never on it.

Applying the manual's pricing chapters

Ch 3.6 and 3.7 were written for products whose value is the thing sold. Use them for the thing beside the introduction, and check each price against 3 questions before you publish it:

1. Does anyone pay more, or earn more, while two people have not yet met?
2. Does paying change who is shown, in what order, or who can see a yes?
3. Is the payment a condition of being listed or introduced?

Any yes puts the price on the introduction, the surface §1.3 leaves undefined on purpose and Article VIII says nobody pays for. That test is this chapter's own rule, built beside §1.3 for this edition.

Ch 3.6, the 3 ways to set a price. Cost-plus, competitor-based and value-based all still work for the class, the membership, the ticket or the hosting plan. Value-based pricing needs one adjustment. The value you may price is the value of the thing you sell. The introductions a Pool makes possible are why people come, and they are not yours to bill.

Ch 3.6, tiering. "good, better, best" works for hosting (1 Pool, 5 Pools, a shared desk) and for memberships. It stops at anything a person sees inside a Pool. Card Catalog's line is the test: "Every field, every drawer and every feature is the same for everyone." A tier that opens who said yes, or a ranking, is a paywall by another name.

Ch 3.6, pricing for services. Hearthhold sells help "after two people decide to build something together, and only if they ask." A curator who sells something like that prices it as a service, as that chapter sets out. It is sold after the introduction and only on request, and it is never tied to the next one.

Ch 3.7, outcome, performance and usage pricing. Two of its 3 models are closed to the introduction. A success fee "when a defined event happens" cannot name an introduction, a first message or a relationship as the event. A percentage cannot be taken of anything an introduction produced; Seen Work's "Nobody pays a referral fee, on either side" and Ferry Room's "we don't take a cut of a gig" are the library's answers. Usage pricing can price a host's own costs, such as Pools hosted or storage, and never introductions or messages.

Ch 5.3, invoicing and payments. Memberships, tickets and hosting invoices follow that chapter: terms, deposits, processor fees and dunning. Kindling changes none of it, as long as no invoice line is for an introduction.

Ch 6.3, grants. Midspan and The Board run on grants and public budgets. A nonprofit Pool is a grant-shaped business, and Ch 6.3 covers it.

Where this manual's vocabulary collides with the protocol, the protocol wins. Take-rate, lock-in and moat language does not apply to the introduction. The Why page: "When you can leave without losing anyone, streaks, paywalled likes and fake urgency lose their leverage."

What it costs to run a Pool or a registry

The hosting is named in two places. §3.1 makes a Pool JSON "from a public Git repository or from a Pool API endpoint," and the registry's README says it is "Designed to run on a single VPS or a small container." Published prices for those kinds of hosting, checked October 4, 2026, follow. They are list prices for single items; your total depends on choices this chapter does not make for you.

Figures checked October 2026.

A static manifest is not a complete Pool host. §11.1 says a compliant host "Implements ... §5 (handshake)," and §5 includes "Implementations MUST process withdrawal within 60 seconds of receipt." (§5.3) A file in a Git repository cannot remove an entry within a minute on its own. Something has to be running to receive the withdrawal and update the manifest. That is a reading of §5.3, §6.1 and §11.1, and no single line of the spec states it; budget for it either way.

GitHub Pages carries its own limit. It "is not intended for or allowed to be used as a free web-hosting service to run your online business, e-commerce site, or any other website that is primarily directed at either facilitating commercial transactions or providing commercial software as a service (SaaS)." A volunteer Pool fits. A paid hosting desk does not.

The largest cost is time, and the table has no row for it. The library's Ferry Room: "The Pools cost us an afternoon a week and earn nothing." That is an invented figure from an invented collective, the only one the sites offer. Track your own hours before you price anything beside a Pool.

Field exercises

1. Write one sentence for your business in the library's form: what pays, then what never pays. Done when it passes all 3 questions above with 3 noes.
2. Take your current or planned price list and mark each line "beside" or "on" the introduction. Done when every line is "beside," or the "on" lines are deleted.
3. Price the thing beside the introduction with Ch 3.6's 3 methods. Done when you have a floor, a market reference and a value ceiling, each with its source.
4. Get current prices for the hosting and email your Pool needs, from the providers' own pages. Done when each price carries the date you checked it and the page it came from.
5. Write down how a withdrawal reaches your manifest within 60 seconds (§5.3). Done when you have tested it end to end with an invented profile and timed it.