what is FYL
FYL is a public archive of UFO and UAP evidence found on the internet. Anyone can submit a piece of evidence — a video, a photo, a news clip, a forum post. Anyone else can stake $FYL on whether that piece of evidence is real, mundane, faked, or something genuinely new. The crowd's stakes resolve each file into a permanent classification.
Behind every submission, a worker quietly checks the evidence against open public data — flight tracking, weather, satellite positions, reverse-image search, deepfake detection. The crowd doesn't have to take anyone's word for it. The receipts are onchain.
FYL is the canonical, stake-curated, provenance-tracked archive of UFO evidence that doesn't exist anywhere else — yet.
why it exists
Right now UFO evidence is scattered across X threads, YouTube compilations, MUFON PDFs, Reddit posts, dead Geocities pages. There is no single canonical place where:
- Every entry has been auto-checked against open data.
- Every entry has a permanent provenance snapshot (so it can't vanish when the source X account gets nuked).
- The crowd has actual skin in the game when calling something real or fake.
- Researchers and journalists can pull a clean, trust-graded dataset.
FYL fills that gap. Anyone can file. The crowd resolves. The output is a reliability-graded archive that researchers, journalists, and ML training pipelines can actually use.
how a file moves through the system
Every file goes through the same four stages. End to end, this takes about a week.
file it
You paste a link to evidence — X post, YouTube video, news article, PDF, anywhere. The site or the bot drafts a file from that link: pulls the media, snapshots the source page on Internet Archive and Arweave, extracts location and time if available, and prompts you to confirm. You post a small $FYL stake to submit.
auto-checks run
The moment your file lands, a worker fans out across nine open-data sources — flight tracking, weather, satellite ephemerides, FAA notices, reverse-image search, deepfake scoring, and more. Every result is hashed into a Merkle tree and posted onchain. Anyone with the file's CID can replay every query and reproduce the same root.
stake market opens
For seven days, anyone can stake $FYL on one of four verdicts: AUTHENTIC, MISATTRIBUTED, DEBUNKED, or NOVEL. Stakes are visible. Verified witnesses (pilots, ATC, military) get a vote-weight bonus. The auto-check root is right there for everyone to read.
resolve + stamp
After seven days, anyone can call resolve(). Losing-side stakes are slashed, winners split the pool, and the file gets a permanent classification — FYL #0042. A 24-hour challenge window opens after that, in case anyone has hard counter-evidence. After 24h with no challenge, the verdict is locked forever.
the 5 file states
Every file lives in exactly one state at a time. There are five.
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| OPEN | Inside the 7-day stake window. Anyone can still stake. |
| AUTHENTIC | Real footage. Not edited, not CGI, no mundane explanation found in the auto-checks. |
| MISATTRIBUTED | Real footage but explained — a satellite, a drone, a balloon, a flare, a lens artifact. |
| DEBUNKED | Known fake — hoax, CGI, edited, recycled. |
| NOVEL | AUTHENTIC and never seen in the archive before this submission. Highest reward tier. |
A sixth tag, LEGACY, marks pre-launch genesis imports (NUFORC, MUFON, classics like Roswell and Rendlesham). LEGACY files carry no stakes — they exist for historical density on the map and the index.
why post a file
Posting is a bet. You're saying "I think this evidence is real, and I'm willing to stake $FYL on it." If you're right, you get paid out of the pool of people who staked against you. If you're submitting a hoax, your stake gets slashed.
| Resolution | What you get back |
|---|---|
| NOVEL | 100% of stake refunded · 50% bonus on top · share of the slashed pool. Jackpot tier. |
| AUTHENTIC | 100% of stake refunded · share of the slashed pool. |
| MISATTRIBUTED | 50% refund. The evidence was useful but mundane. |
| DEBUNKED | 0%. Full slash to treasury. Hoax tax. |
| OPEN-EXPIRED | If the 7-day window ends with no quorum, you get a small refund minus admin cost. |
The filer is mathematically a staker on their own file. Submitting is betting AUTHENTIC or NOVEL. Spam loses money. Truth makes money.
anti-spam, before you stake
- Reverse-image dedup runs at submit. If your evidence is already in the archive, the submission is rejected — no stake taken. No easy reupload of famous footage.
- Three-open-files cap per address. You can't flood the queue.
- Filer reputation grows on each successful resolution. High-rep filers get cheaper submissions; low-rep filers get throttled until they prove themselves.
why stake
Staking is how you call a file. You're saying "I think this file resolves AUTHENTIC / MISATTR / DEBUNK / NOVEL, and I'll back it with $FYL." If you call right, you split the loser pool proportional to your stake. If you call wrong, your stake is slashed.
| Outcome | What you get |
|---|---|
| You called the winning verdict | Your stake back · share of the slashed pool weighted by stake size. |
| You called a losing verdict | Stake forfeited to the winning pool + 5% protocol cut. |
| You consistently call right over time | Reputation grows · eligible for top-N curator emissions ($FYL drip). |
vote weight
- Base weight = your stake size.
- Verified witness boost — pilots, military, ATC, police with a credentialed primary-witness statement get a 2-3× vote-weight multiplier. They actually know what's normal in their domain.
- Curator boost — top reputation curators get a small multiplier, capped to prevent oligarchy.
the auto-checks
The auto-checks are what stops the stake market from being pure vibes. The moment a file lands, a worker queries every public dataset that could explain the evidence as mundane. The results are Merkle-rooted and posted onchain. Anyone with the file's CID can replay all of them and reproduce the same root.
| Source | What it proves |
|---|---|
| OpenSky Network (ADS-B) | Was there a tracked aircraft in the same bounding box at the same time? |
| NOAA | Cloud cover, visibility, lightning, weather conditions at the location. |
| CelesTrak | Were Starlink, ISS, or other tracked satellites overhead? |
| FAA NOTAMs | Were there any active flight notices — drone tests, balloons, exercises? |
| KiwiSDR network | Was there unusual radio activity in the area? |
| TinEye + Google Lens | Has this image appeared elsewhere on the internet before this submission? |
| Perceptual hash dedup | Is this a near-duplicate of an existing file in the archive? |
| Internet Archive + Arweave pin | Permanent provenance snapshot of the source URL. |
| Hive / Reality Defender | Deepfake / CGI scoring on video and image evidence. |
A "no mundane finding" doesn't prove the footage is alien. It proves the public data can't explain it as a plane, a satellite, a balloon, or a known fake. That's a real signal. The stake market is what turns that signal into a verdict.
verified witnesses
A pilot looking at a video knows what a normal contrail looks like. An ATC controller knows what's on radar that night. A military observer knows what classified test platforms can and can't do. Their stake should weigh more than a random anon's.
Verified witnesses attach a credentialed primary-witness statement to a file (signed off-chain by a verifying party). Their stakes get a 2-3× vote-weight multiplier. We're still working out who can act as a credential issuer — likely a small set of trusted orgs (existing UAP research groups, AARO partners) at first, expanding as the pattern proves itself.
anti-fraud — the safety nets
1. the slasher
After a file resolves, a 24-hour challenge window opens. Anyone can
post a MIN_BOND of $FYL, attach hard counter-evidence,
and ask the governor to flip the verdict. If the challenge wins, the
verdict flips and the challenger gets their bond back plus a cut of
the slashed pool. If the challenge loses, the bond is forfeited.
2. reputation
Every address builds a reputation score over time. Reputation can't be airdropped, transferred, or bought. It rewards persistent accuracy, not single-event farming. Curator emissions go to the top reputation addresses.
3. open data, open code
Every auto-check worker is open source. Anyone can run a parallel verifier against the same file CID and confirm — or contradict — the published Merkle root. If an oracle attester ever publishes a root that someone can independently disprove, they get slashed.
4. no takedowns
We do not delete evidence based on stakes. Resolutions are classifications, not removals. A DEBUNKED file stays in the archive forever, marked DEBUNKED — that's how the dataset learns.
the $FYL token
$FYL is the only stake asset in FYL. It's not a payment token — filing and staking don't cost a fee — it's the coordination asset that aligns filers, stakers, and curators around accurate resolutions.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Chain | Base mainnet · 8453 |
| Launch | Fair launch via Clanker cast — no premine, no team allocation, no presale |
| Standard | Vanilla ERC-20 · no transfer tax |
| Stake denomination | $FYL only · from day one · no USDC bootstrap |
| Launch order | Clanker cast → ≥ 24h liquidity → registry submissions open |
| Rewards source | Clanker creator fees → FylRewardsVault → slashing insurance + curator emissions |
| Hard rule | No canonical $FYL Clanker cast without explicit operator go. |
Earlier drafts considered a USDC bootstrap. We dropped it. A single stake asset means one market, one liquidity venue, one set of incentives — and aligns every participant against the same denominator.
legacy files
Before launch, FYL imports the public NUFORC and MUFON archives as LEGACY files. These are non-staked, archival-only entries — no rewards, no resolution market, no filer attached. They exist purely for:
- Heatmap density on the map.
- Historical context (Roswell, Rendlesham, Phoenix Lights, Tehran-1976).
- Perceptual-hash dedup baseline — so you can't reupload a 1947 photo as a brand new file.
LEGACY files are clearly tagged in the index. They never appear in the active stake market.
FAQ
do I need to be the original witness to file something?
No. FYL is for evidence found on the internet. The submitter is the person who brought it into the archive — they don't have to have seen the event themselves. If you are the witness, attach a verified-witness statement for the vote-weight bonus.
what stops me from filing the same Roswell photo over and over?
Reverse-image hash dedup runs at submission. If the evidence is already in the archive (LEGACY or otherwise), the submit is rejected — no stake taken. The first file gets the canonical entry; copies bounce.
what if the auto-checks miss something obvious?
That's exactly what the stake market is for. The auto-checks are a starting point, not a verdict. Stakers add corroborating evidence, counter-links, and primary-witness statements. The 24-hour challenge window after resolution is a final safety net for hard counter-evidence.
what if a coordinated group floods stakes to push a wrong verdict?
Three layers fight this. First, the verdict has to win against verified-witness boosts. Second, the 24-hour challenge window lets anyone post counter-evidence and flip the verdict. Third, brigaders who lose a challenge get slashed extra. Coordinated dishonesty is asymmetrically expensive.
why $FYL and not USDC?
One stake asset means one market, one liquidity venue, and aligned incentives across filers, stakers, and curators. A USDC bootstrap would have meant running two parallel resolution markets during the migration. We dropped it.
how is FYL different from MUFON or NUFORC?
MUFON and NUFORC are unverified text dumps with no skin in the game and no provenance snapshot. FYL is stake-curated, dedup'd, auto-checked, and provenance-pinned to Internet Archive + Arweave. Resolutions are reproducible — anyone can replay the queries and verify.
what happens to evidence if a source X account or YouTube channel gets nuked?
It survives. Every file is snapshotted to Internet Archive and pinned to Arweave at submission time, before stakes resolve. The provenance root is onchain. Source-platform takedowns can't erase what's already in the archive.
can I just read the archive without staking?
Yes. Researchers, journalists, and ML pipelines never need to connect a wallet. The full /fyls index is public. Every file ships with its evidence, provenance snapshot, auto-check root, stake history, and reliability score.
when does this go live?
Phase 0 (this site) is live. Phase 1 (registry contracts) is sepolia-verified. Phase 2 (off-chain workers) is scaffolded. Mainnet + Clanker launch happens after the worker fan-out is end-to-end on sepolia and the operator green-lights the Clanker cast. See /status for the full roadmap.
glossary
- fyl
- Verb. To file a piece of evidence into the archive. "I fyl'd that orb video from Phoenix last night."
- fyl'd
- Past tense. "It got fyl'd at block 12345."
- fyl number
- The sequential serial on every resolved file (
FYL #0042). - the stamp
- The visual rubber-stamp mark on a resolved file (
FYL ✓ #0042). - the wall
- The chronological feed of new submissions.
- the index
- The searchable archive at /fyls.
- NOVEL
- A file resolved AUTHENTIC and first-of-kind. Highest reward tier.
- LEGACY
- Pre-launch genesis import (NUFORC/MUFON). Non-staked, archival.
- auto-checks
- The nine open-data queries that run on every submission.
- oracle attester
- A committee member who signs off on a Merkle root of auto-check results.
- slasher
- The challenge contract that lets anyone post counter-evidence within 24h of resolution.
- reliability score
- A function of filer rep, corroborator count, auto-check passes, deepfake score, perceptual-hash uniqueness, stake signal, time to resolution, and verified-witness presence. The actual product.
anyone can file a file.
only the file decides what kind of file it is.